The Legend of Zelda: A New Beginning
by Midnayuki
Summary: Ed has just gotten back from the west after the Promised Day, when he meets a girl in a mask. Determined to make things right, he embarks on a journey that will unmask the truths of the lands before Amestris was formed and discover his destiny on the way.
1. The Curse

**IMPORTANT! I HAVE GONE BACK AND CHANGED CHANGED WHAT HAPPENS IN IN WHAT CHAPTER! GO BACK AND READ THROUGH AGAIN.**

Time is a strange thing, no? The span of the lives of thousands; years of experience, pain, joy, and sorrow can be condensed into books worth a few hours of your time. For example:

Two thousand years ago, Homunculus used the king of Xerxes to make the country into a Philosopher's Stone, and shared his newfound immortality with the slave that had given the blood that gave him life, Van Hoenheim. Sixteen years ago, Van Hoenheim left his wife and children to try and stop Father from repeating Xerxes in Amestris. Fourteen years ago, Trisha Elric fell ill and died, leaving her sons devastated, and determined to bring her back through human transmutation. Thirteen years ago, Edward and Alphonse Elric learned the Law of Providence on Yock Island. Eight years ago, Edward lost his leg and his brother to a transmutation, and sacrificed his arm to bond Alphonse's soul to the armor in the corner. He learned the Truth of everything. He got an automail arm and leg, to carry himself and support his brother, so he could work to get his brother's body back.

Seven years ago, he became the youngest ever dog of the military, so he could do the research needed to achieve his goal. Five years ago, he came to the painful realization that he was only a human being, who couldn't even save a little girl. Four years ago, he discovered the Homunculi, and that he was going to be a human sacrifice. Four years ago, he discovered what that meant. Three years ago, he defeated the leader of the Homunculi. He made up with his father. Most importantly, he pulled his brother out of the Gate, at the cost of his alchemy. The Truth asked if he really could bear to become an ordinary human, to which he replied:

"I've always been a regular human. After all, I couldn't even save a little girl." The Truth grinned, because He/She/It had finally lost.

Two years ago, he resigned from the military, returned to Risembool with his flesh-and-blood-feeling-touching-tasting-weak-but-oh-so-beautifull brother, and made Winry cry from happiness. He built a house for him and his brother with his hands and tools. One year ago, he promised Winry half of his life, in exchange for half of hers. She promised him more than half. He left for the west.

Through the course of the year, he spent time in the capital of Creta, Verità, investigating claims of "magic", specifically, an artifact that could be used to "see the truth." Taking his less than pleasant experiences with the Truth into account, his unease about the item was understandable. When he convinced the officials to let him examine it (he may not have had an automail fist to do any beating with, but he learned to use his words eventually), he discovered that he was the only one who could use it. He also discovered that things in the world were not always as they appeared, and that the artifact was used to see through the illusion, not to see the Truth of Alchemy. Awed by his abilities, the Cretians gave him the Lens of Truth, proclaiming him the man who would continue the legacy of the Heroes of old. Ed brushed it off, a little creeped out, and made his way home.

Right now, he stood on the platform in Risembool, waiting for his brother's train to come in. It was sunny and bright, a perfect summer day. His mind wandered, not for the first time, to the item in his coat pocket. It was the size of a magnifying glass, and had the same general shape as one, but for a few important differences. It was violet, with red spikes protruding from the top, and the handle broadened as it stemmed away from the lens, and rounded at the bottom. The glass itself was the biggest difference. Looking at it from one side, it looked to be a deep blue, but the other side appeared to be a light purple-pink color. Both had a red symbol, like a snake's pupil, in the center. He wondered what it was supposed to look like, but was brought out of his musings by the arrival of a train. He stood up, searching the crowd for his brother.

Alphonse was one of the last off the train, and Ed noted with joy that he had put on more muscle than when last they saw each other; before, he was technically healthy, but not as strong as he was before the transmutation, relatively speaking. Edward caught his brother's eye, and his heart swelled as Al's face lit up, simply happy that his brother could smile again. He responded with an equally large grin, and Al rushed over to meet him with a hug.

"Brother!"

"Hey! So how's Mei doing?" He asked with a sly grin, elbowing his brother. They were walking now, making their way back to their home.

"Brother!" Al blushed and shoved his brother playfully. "It's the first time in a year that we've seen each other, and the first thing you do is tease me?"

"Of course. I'm your big brother aren't I? It's my job." They chatted like that for a little longer, but eventually fell into a comfortable silence that lasted until they got to their house. Deciding to do all the unpacking, laundry, and general tidying after they let Winry know they were back and had dinner, they left the house with just a few things in their pockets to show Winry.

Upon arrival, they were greeted by the familiar sight of Den sleeping by the door and Granny Pinako smoking her pipe, smiling back at them. "I see you boys have finally returned," she said.

"Yeah. We're home." Ed replied. Before anyone could say anything else, a projectile in the form of a wrench hit Ed squarely in the forehead, knocking him over and drawing a bit of blood.

"How many times do I have to tell you to call when you're on your way back?" The owner of the wrench yelled down from the second story. Ed looked back up at the imposing form of his girlfriend with happiness and trepidation. "Welcome back!" was all that she said before ducking back in the house. She seemed a little distant, but Ed shrugged it off. Ed rubbed his head a bit more, got off the ground, and made his way inside with his brother.

"Before we do anything else, Ed. I want to change your automail. I just came up with a new design that should be just as light as the cold weather automail, but more durable. You're lucky you made it home when you did; I'm going back to Rush Valley in a week to get back to my shop." Ed sighed. It was always business before pleasure with her. He removed his pants and boots and sat on the couch with his leg propped up on a stool. Winry removed it with the small jolt of the nerves detaching and ran back upstairs to get his new leg.

All too used to the procedure by now, Ed mentally prepared for the reattaching of his leg, and barely noticed as Winry came back down with the newer model (already adjusted for his slightly taller self- how does she do that?) and started to hook it up. She gave the usual warning before the attachment; Ed gave the usual "ready", and braced himself as fiery waves of pain shot up and down his leg. Electricity danced through his nerves, and he did his best to bear it, though he noticed through the pain that it wasn't as bad as it used to be. He figured it might have something to do with only needing one limb attached.

When that was over, Ed and Al went outside to test it out. Ed may not be an alchemist anymore but he'd be damned if he let himself get weak. He did, after all, still have some people that had grudges for him. He went easy on his brother at first, trying to balance out the necessary change of tactics with his brother's own recovery. It was soon obvious, however, that Ed had no need to hold back any, as Al was as good a fighter as he ever was. All Ed really had to do was avoid using his left leg too much.

After a few hours of sparring, Granny Pinako called everyone to the table for dinner, so Ed and Al got themselves cleaned up. Dinner was an animated affair, with Ed and Al both eager to share what had happened on their journeys. "Okay boys, settle down. One at a time. I didn't think I'd still need to tell you this. You are seventeen and eighteen, after all." Pinako remarked. Winry withheld her comment until such a time that it would be better appreciated.

Al told his story first. "Okay, so I decided to go through the ruins of Xerxes to get to Xing, so I could compare Amestrian Alchemy to Xerxian Alchemy, and then compare the two of them to Alkahestry. I didn't see too much, but it was really creepy at night. After I made it across the desert, I stopped in the border town, where Mei said she'd meet me. It turns out that her clan is from that area, so she introduced me to the rest of her family. We went to the capital of Xing from there."

He went on to describe how he met Ling in the Imperial City, and that he allowed them to stay in his quarters, which turned out to be a decently-sized building just off the rest of the palace. Lan Fan helped him learn to throw kunai with enough accuracy to use Alkahestry at a distance, and Mei began to teach him to read the "veins of the dragon." He spent most of the year learning that, but training went quickly afterwards, and he nearly had the level of skill that Mei possessed.

Edward told his story next, though he didn't have nearly as much to say as Al did. He mostly talked about the legends surrounding the Lens of Truth, but also added in that only he could use it. When Winry asked to see it so she could take it apart and see how it worked, Ed showed it to her, much to her surprise. She was disappointed to discover that it couldn't be taken apart, and Al asked to see it next. He could sense something different about it because of his new abilities, but couldn't tell what.

"It seems like you two boys have been busy." Pinako commented as they cleared the table.

"Yeah," Ed replied. "It wasn't anything like before when the homunculi were trying to use me an Al as a sacrifice, and I worked for the military, but it was a nice change."

"Brother, I think you're the only person in the world who could consider that level of activity to be normal. I'm just glad we don't need to deal with it anymore."

"Yeah, plus I don't have to deal with that bastard colonel anymore."

"Do you mean Mr. Mustang, brother? I hear he got promoted to general. He's the first blind high-ranking officer ever."

"Oh, really? I don't care."

"Why not, Ed? He was your commanding officer, right? You could at least try to have a little more respect for him." Winry just finished clearing the table, and decided to join the conversation. She still seemed a little cold, though. Edward just snorted, failing to hold back his laughter.

"Why should I? He's a pompous womanizing bastard that constantly made fun of me and held that human transmutation over my head in case I ever got out of line."

"At least he's doing something. As far as I know, you're the only one who hasn't done anything significant in the past few years."

"Yeah, says who?"

"Says me!" The argument was getting heated now. Al got an alkahestry array ready for when Winry hit his brother with that wrench of hers so hard that he fell unconscious. "Al is doing his best to get alchemy back to the way it should be, Roy is still trying to cover up what happened three years ago _and_ rebuild the country at the same time, Scar and Mr. Miles are working on easing tension between the Ishvalans and Amestrians, and all you do is go west because you feel like it!" Ed took a breath, ready to begin his side of the argument, but Winry didn't stop there.

"It's been a year, Ed! One year! I understand that before you left, you were busy taking care of Al, tying up a few loose ends, and building the two of you a house. That was fine! Everyone has been working almost non-stop since you've been gone! Mr. Roy and Miss Riza have been working non-stop to find a way to fix his eyes and Mr. Havoc's legs, Fuhrer Grumman has been covering up the Homunculus fiasco and rebuilding, Scar and Mr. Miles have been trying to ease the tension between the Ishvalans and Amestris, and your brother has been trying to put the two kinds of alchemy together to get the purest kind, and what have you been doing? Chasing rumors again; going off in search of something that might not exist, all because you can't do anything else! You're so useless!"

There was a pregnant silence, as Winry drew her wrench, shaking so much that it trembled in her hand. Edward was stunned. She had obviously been holding this in for a long time, and her words made sense. She was right. He didn't have his alchemy anymore. He wasn't Edward Elric, Fullmetal Alchemist and Hero of the People. He was just Ed. A normal person, except for his automail leg, genius mind, and eyes that had seen far too much for his age. He couldn't move on, and Winry hated him for it.

"So that's what you think? Fine, I'll just get my useless ass out of here. At least I can still do that much." He wasn't angry. He was just hurt, and a little sad. For the first time, the implications of giving up everything he was for the person he cared for the most hit him, and hit him hard. He dashed out the door, barely registering that it was dark, and that it had started raining fiercely since he last looked out the window a few hours ago.

Al glanced at Winry, watching her visibly deflate, immediately regretting her words. "I'll go get him," he said. With that, he dashed off into the stormy night with an umbrella. Ed had already made it halfway between Winry's place and his own, and he was fast approaching the cemetery. Al struggled to keep up, but was able to overtake him when Ed slowed to a walk. Ed acknowledged his brother with a nod, but didn't say anything. After listening to nothing but the patter of the rain against the umbrella for a few minutes, Al spoke softly.

"She doesn't really think that, you know."

"Of course she does. I don't know why she wouldn't. In just a year, you've pretty much mastered alkahestry. What have I done? I found a trinket that doesn't do anything useful." He pulled out the Lens of Truth. "I can't do anything anymore... this is worse than when we were kids. I know so much more, but I can do so much less."

"Brother..." anything he was about to say was cut off as his brother collapsed. He tripped over his brother's limp form after being pushed from behind and tumbled down the small hill, landing dazedly at the bottom. He looked up to see a figure hunched over his brother, picking up the Lens of Truth. She stared at it a while as Ed began to stir.

The first thing Ed thought when he woke up was _Damn that hurt... what happened?_ He opened his eyes to be greeted with the sight of a girl (he thought it was a girl, anyway... he could only see her back) holding the gift he got from Verità. "Hey! That's mine!" he shouted. The figure jumped and turned around, trying to hide her steal from Ed. It didn't work. They stared at each other a while (or at least, Ed stared at her).

She was wearing a mask. He could only make out bits at a time, when the lightning flashed. It was shaped like a heart, but it had spikes protruding from it. It was mostly purple, but the eyes of the mask were a haunting poison green, with yellow where the whites should be. The mask's eyes gleamed in the darkness.

While Ed was taking all of this in Al was struggling to get back to his feet in the mud, and the girl was backing away slowly. All of a sudden, she turned and ran back towards Winry's house. Edward quickly gave chase, and Al did his best to keep up, but the two of them were fast. He only barely managed to keep them in sight. Ed's constant stream of curses at the girl helped when he lost them, though.

Eventually, Padora came to a stop near the fence in front of the house. Ed stopped a few feet in front of her, staring again. This time, however, he was confused and gaping at the fact that she was floating cross-legged a few feet off the ground, with her hands in her lap. She would have looked like an oversized child, if not for the floating and the ominous mask.

"You run pretty fast for a midget." Her voice made Ed's die in his throat. It was childish, like her posture, and would have reminded him of Elysia giggling at a joke, if not for the menacing twist that reminded of the Truth instead. Shivers ran up his spine as his thoughts turned briefly to the one who called Him/Her/Itself by many names. "...But you aren't any fun anymore. Tag is getting boring! Let's play pretend."

"I'm not a kid! I don't play games!"

"Oh? I'll have to fix that then..." She started shaking her head left and right, and the mask jiggled around; a sight that was somehow more menacing than it should have been. She giggled again, and soon that insane, childish laughter was all Ed could hear. He couldn't even hear his brother call his name as he sank to his knees, clutching his head in pain.

_Darkness. All he could see was darkness. He supposed it was better than the Truth, but it still wasn't a good thing. The darkness felt evil, like it was full of menacing things waiting to get him. He was floating, he discovered, and falling, but not going anywhere. He touched the ground- or at least, he thought it was the ground; he didn't feel any difference except that he was standing and not floating and not falling. When he was upright and not falling, he saw what looked like himself standing all around him, staring at him._

_He saw himself from one year ago. Two years ago. Three years ago. Four years ago. All the way up to when he was twelve, and they were all looking at him and smiling. The smiles didn't truly reach their eyes though; they were grinning like mad, and their eyes were full of the same madness. They were giggling and chanting, "let's play, let's play, let's play!"_

"_No... I don't want to play..." Upon speaking these words, he discovered he had a voice, and it seemed like a spell was broken. He stepped backwards, and all the Edward-but-not-Edwards stepped forward. He didn't know why, but he knew letting them near him was a bad idea. For the first time since Alphonse gave himself up so Edward could have his arm back, Edward was scared. Not just scared, but truly, deeply, terrified. He turned and ran, shielding his face from terrors only his mind could see._

_As he did, images flashed in front of him. Meeting Al after they got back from their journeys. Helping Al learn to run again. Helping Al learn to walk again. Al, back in the armor, giving himself up so his brother could stay safe. Envy, killing himself because of his sadness and jealousy. Scar, apologizing to Winry for killing her parents. Learning that Al's armor could reject his soul at any time. Seeing Al's body in the gate, looking so thin. Meeting Ling. Lab 5. The last time he saw Hughes. Winry, hitting him over the head for getting his arm shattered. Scar, shattering his arm. Nina's smiling face. Rose, aiming a gun at him and demanding he tell her how to move on. Roy, holding him by the shirt and lifting him out of his wheelchair, demanding to know what they did. Giving up his arm to save his brother. That thing, wheezing at him. His brother, taken away. His only brother, reluctant to go through with the transmutation that would nearly destroy their lives._

_Then, in front of him, his eleven-year-old self giggled cruelly. Edward could not move. He could not speak. He could barely breath. The him-but-not-him walked towards him. Time seemed to freeze. His eleven-year-old self overwhelmed him. The only thing left was darkness and pain._

When Edward regained his senses, he found himself to be much closer to the ground than he should have been. Realizing that he was lying down, he stood up, realizing that he still was far too close to the ground. Looking down, he discovered why. He was _short._ Not just his body. His hair was short too. And come to think of it... why did he feel both feet? Lifting up his pant leg in wonder, he saw that his leg was back. He gasped in amazement, then gasped again when he realized his voice was much higher than it should have been.

"Do you like it? I think it's better! Now that you're a kid, will you play?" Ed was silent, trying to sort through his emotions. He gave up on it as a useless endeavor, and chose instead to glare at the masked girl. "No? Aw, and I thought we were gonna have a lot of fun! Maybe you just need a reason?" Ed turned to where he thought the girl's attention was, and found that he would have been face-to-face with his brother, if he didn't come up to Alphonse's waist.

"B-brother?"

"Oh, so you two are brothers! Stop distracting my new friend, you big meanie!" Because only one of them was big now, Ed could only assume that she was talking about Al. He was right. She started shaking her head again, and before Edward knew it, his brother was unconscious.

"What did you do to him, you bitch?"

"Aw, you're not very nice... Fine. If you don't want to play with me, I'm going back to Central." Edward was too busy trying to wake up his brother to notice that she had gone. He was also too absorbed in his frantic attempts to wake Alphonse that he didn't notice there was someone else approaching him.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"


	2. The Mask and the Chase

**EDIT: I changed Fuery to Hawkeye and have added section headings for each new day.**

**Disclaimer time! I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist/Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood or The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask. I'm just borrowing them for a little while.**

_**Dawn of the First Day: 168 Hours Remain**_

"_You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"_

Ed was suddenly confronted by a large bag on a purple stick; strange as it may seem. Upon looking closer, he saw that the stick was a girl wearing eccentric purple traveling clothes with a giant pack on her back. The pack had various masks dangling off from it. Some were happy looking, some sad, and some very strange. Her attire wasn't the only odd thing about her, however.

The first thing that drew Ed's attention was her expression. Her eyes were squinted shut and reminded him of Ling. The rest of her face had an oriental cast as well, but her skin was as fair as an ordinary Amestrians. Her most off-putting feature (she had far more than Ed thought was possible, from her hunched over posture to her wringing hands) was her smile. Her eyebrows were set in sympathy, and her voice sounded a bit concerned, but that grin never left her face. It was wide and showed many of her teeth, but little kindness could be felt from it. It reminded him of a fox; it was shrewd and calculating. The smile was so distracting that he didn't notice her ears at first. Instead of the usual shape, they extended a good six inches from the sides of her head and tapered off into sharp points.

"I am a traveler, searching far and wide for many different masks." Her words seemed to be carefully chosen, like she was skirting around some greater truth. It was creepy and her voice sounded like it was trying not to let on that she knew more than she should. "In my travels, a very important mask was stolen from me. And, on this luckiest of days, I have found you! I don't mean to seem rude, but I followed you from the station... and saw what happened to you and your brother."

Ed was about to make a rude and quite possibly violent retort about how creepy that was, but she pressed on before he could do more than take a breath. "I know of a way to return you to your former self. If you can get back that precious item that was stolen from you, I can tell you how to return to normal. In exchange, all I ask is that you also get that mask back for me. Simple, no? Why, to someone like you, it should be no difficult task."

Ed warily nodded, standing up slowly. "The only thing is... I am a very busy girl, and I need to be on my way in seven day's time. I would be most grateful if you could return that mask to me before my time is up... But I'm sure you'll be fine. You do, after all, have uncommon courage... I'm sure this should be no problem. I am counting on you."

If later asked, Edward would be unable to relate precisely the events that followed. All he would be able to relate was that by the time the conversation with the strange girl was over, the sun had came up. He moved in a daze, still trying to comprehend the feeling in his gut that said he wouldn't be returned to normal anytime soon, nor would Al wake on his own. There was also a feeling of déjà vu, but he did his best to ignore it in favor of getting his brother out of the rain. He somehow got Alphonse to the porch of Winry's house, knocked on the door, and left before either Rockbell could see him. He returned to his house to get some much-needed sleep.

When he woke up in the morning, it was with the feeling that something was distinctly wrong. As he shuffled into the bathroom and looked in the mirror, he remembered with a jolt what had happened the night before. He took a moment to examine more closely what that masked girl had turned him into, and noticed that he looked exactly how he had when he was 11. It was if that mask had somehow turned back the clock for him, erasing every scar and wound he had gained since he turned 11, and replaced them with the scars, bruises, and bumps he had that day.

He noted grimly that he needed new clothes; nothing he owned would fit his sm-not as big body. He dug through everything he and Al owned, managed to make one of his old red shirts into a tunic, and tied a belt around his waist to keep it from being too loose. He made his way around the town, not worrying too much about being seen since the sun was still barely up. He felt a little guilty about it, but he stole some child-sized boots and pants from nearby houses, scrounging up a few more tunics along the way.

Remembering the girl said something about Central, he scrounged up some cash and boarded the next train, which would arrive in the city around 9:00 am. The ride was quiet. Ed ignored the looks he was getting for being a child alone on a train wearing an outdated style of clothing. Instead, he reminisced about the last time he had ridden a train as a child... back when he was trying to get his State Alchemist license. He had been looked at strangely then, too. The goal and the guilt in his mind and heart were similar.

If it hadn't been for me, Al would be okay. He'd be smiling and laughing, he thought, as he got off the train. He shook his head clear of those thoughts and began to focus on the conversations going on around him, listening for any clue of the whereabouts of a strange girl wearing a stranger mask. Most of what he heard was drivel, but he managed to pick up a few interesting things, not all of them about the girl, either.

First of all, it seemed that Roy Mustang, his ex-commanding officer, still hadn't gotten his eyesight back. Instead, he told Dr. Marcoh to find a way to use it to fix Havoc's legs. Marcoh was close to a breakthrough, it seemed, but Havoc was still in a wheelchair, and Mustang was still blind. He seemed to be coping well, though, so Ed supposed there wasn't anything he should do about it. Rebuilding was almost done, and relationships with the Ishvalans were better than they had been in a long time.

Something Ed discovered when someone pointed it out was that the moon had not set yet from last night, even though it was nearing 1:00 in the afternoon. It was bigger, and almost full, too, even though it had been nearly a new moon. This caused a shiver to go up his spine although he didn't know why. Near 5:00 in the evening, he finally found a lead on the location of the girl in the mask. Apparently, she was having a hissy fit outside the entrance to Central HQ, because the guard would not let her in. A new destination in mind, he set off with his anger quickly rising. By the time she was in sight he was fuming worse than whenever Mustang ordered him into his presence. He jump kicked her in the back of the head, and she went flying across the street.

"Owowowowow! That hurt! Who did that?" She turned around to see Edward barely restraining himself. "Ooooo! You came back! Did you change your mind? Will you play with me?" Ignoring the pang in his heart at the reminder of Nina, he was about to shout that no, he didn't come to play, when he got an idea.

"Sure. I'll play with you. Let's play tag. The person with the trinket you took from me is it."

"That sounds like fun! I'm Padora, by the way. Ready, go!" Before Ed could quite register what had happened, she bolted towards him. He pretended to be trying to avoid her, and led her to a part of the city where she couldn't cause as much damage if and when she threw a tantrum. He shoved his way through many people, and had barely reached a less crowded area when he felt himself shoved to the ground. "Ha! Now you're it!" She handed him the Lens of Truth, and made him give her a head start. He rolled his eyes, but agreed.

He chased her across town so he could make a grab for the mask. Every time he got close, she would duck out of the way. He only got his hand on it once. Padora did not appreciate that. With a yell, she slapped away his hand, and used the power of the mask to blast him away.

"You meanie! You're trying to steal my mask from me! I saw it first, so it's mine!" She started walking towards Ed as she spoke. She started kicking him when she got near enough. Edward, half the size of his attacker but still Edward, fought back as best as he could. It was largely ineffective; mostly because he was used to a wider swing and longer kick. He didn't have as much muscle behind his blows either, so the few times he did manage to land a hit (how could someone be that fast?) it didn't do much to help his cause. With a giggle and a kick to the face, he was knocked to the ground. "I like this game! This is fun!"

Ed staggered to his feet, realizing he was at a big disadvantage without alchemy or automail to pack an extra punch. He hated himself for what he was about to do, but he turned tail and ran anyway. He forced his way through the crowd, leaping over trashcans in the alleyways and dodging slow-moving pedestrians with Padora close at his heels. "Come back! I want to play the new game some more!" Her voice was nowhere near as giggly as it used to be; now it was demanding and forceful. Ed ran harder. Something in that voice inspired true fear in him. There was a tug at his arm, and he spun around with a yell, squeezing his eyes shut and bringing up his fists.

"What's wrong? Where are your parents?" Of all the people who could have found Ed barreling through the streets like the devil himself was at his heels, it had to be Riza Hawkeye. Ed was secretly grateful, both that he hadn't been recognized and that Riza would have few problems with applying a bullet to this problem, and he blinked up at the figure standing above him. Ed noted that she wasn't in uniform, but she always had a pistol on her anyway, so it really didn't matter. He decided to play the "lost little boy" card and get some sympathy (and keep his cover).

"I dunno where my parents are. We were shoppin', and then that creepy girl in the mask came up to me. She hit me and started chasin' me." He started tearing up at this point, and silently applauded his performance. "I started runnin', but she kept chasin' me. You gotta help me, lady!" He clung to Hawkeye's leg for effect.

"It's okay. I'll protect you." Ed closed his eyes and nodded, very glad that Riza didn't say anything about his height. She took out her gun as Padora rounded the corner. She might have been surprised at the mask, but didn't show it as she took aim at Padora's knee and shot. The bullet struck true and Padora went down with a shriek. Ed stuck out his tongue at her as Hawkeye led her to the nearest police station for questioning. Ed decided that he'd give Padora a day before she got bored of this "new game" and busted out. Hawkeye insisted on going with him to "find his parents," so Ed decided to focus on finding a way to escape his newly dubbed protector.

"You know, you remind me of someone."

"I do?" This probably wasn't good.

"Yeah. You've heard of Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist, right?"

"...Yeah."

"You look just like him. You have the same face, and your hair's the same too, although it's shorter... and not many people have eyes like that. In fact, eyes like that are supposed to be only Xerxian traits, and the only surviving people with Xerxian ancestry are Alphonse and... Edward?" Aw, damn. Ed should have realized she's figured it out eventually. She stopped short and turned to look at the boy who had stopped walking. "Edward? Is that you?" To say she was shocked would be an understatement.

"Yeah..."

"What happened?"

"You saw the mask that girl was wearing, right?" Hawkeye nodded. "I know, kind of hard to miss. There's something weird about it. Back in Risembool, I had an argument with Winry. After I stormed out of the house, she got me from behind and mugged me. I couldn't hear her over the rain. I was looking at her mask when I came to, and it started... pulsing... and then I found myself in my 11-year-old body. She did something to Al, too. He's in a coma..." Ed trailed off. Hawkeye's expression would have been unreadable if Ed hadn't known her for so long. Instead, he recognized that she looked down on him with pity; a look that was not lost on him. "Hey. Just 'cause I look like I'm eleven doesn't mean that I am eleven. I'm still exactly the same as I was back then, and I was always old for my age. I'm already working on getting us back to normal... again... and I don't need you guys to get involved. Don't tell anyone you saw me. Hopefully, the next time I turn up in Central, Al and I will be back to normal... again."

With that, Ed turned on his heel and made his way back to the train station. The sun had set a while ago, and it was getting close to 8:00 pm. He got a few odd looks, but managed to get a ticket back to Risembool without too much fuss.


	3. Truth and Magic

**A/N: I apologize PROFUSELY to the people who have been waiting for an update. To be honest, I've had this chapter written for a long time, but I kind of fell off my FMA kick and I stopped paying attention to it. I'm not as interested in FMA anymore, but I promise that I will try to finish this story and the sequel I decided needed to happen. This chapter was going to be short-ish, but I already had the next chapter finished so I decided to just throw them together.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, or The Legend of Zelda. The Happy Mask Seller, Padora, and how to work the Truth into the LoZ creation story as heard in OoT are all mine, but they are all based on elements from FMA and LoZ. The Goddess of Time is technically from MM, but the backstory is mine. The history of Termina is imaginative speculation on my part.**

_**Night of the First Day: 156 Hours Remain**_

He arrived at around 11:00 at night, and began his search for the Happy Mask Seller. He didn't need to look far, as he discovered that she had been making use of his house and his pantry while he was gone. He walked in to his dining room to be met with the sight of a large pile of wood shavings in the middle of the table, a set of paints spread across the open space, and the Mask Seller painting details on a mask.

Knowing better than to interrupt a craftsman at work (he still had several bruises from the last time he bugged Winry), he simply sat back and watched the masterpiece come into being. The mask was pink, almost white, and the pigment changed shades in different lighting. The eyeholes were well disguised; one had to look very closely to see them at all from the front. It was shaped mostly like an angular face, with a sharp chin and high cheekbones. There were very few features on the mask reminiscent of a face beyond that, though. Where the eyes would be, there was only one large eye centered on the mask. It was wide, and the outline was done in a blazing red. The iris was large and painted a poisonous yellow. The eyelashes were made of the outlines of three large red triangles with bottoms that curved slightly inwards, towards the tips. There was a long dewdrop shape outlined down the middle of the mask that reminded Ed of a tear, and it connected to the mouth, which opened in a wide grin, also outlined in red. Ed couldn't place it, but it reminded him of something.

"Thank you for your patience. I trust your return means good news?" She turned around, smiling that creepy smile of hers and setting down the newly finished mask.

"About that..." Ed took out the Lens of Truth and showed it to her.

"You did... get my mask back... didn't you?" Ed shrugged and shook his head. "What? I trusted you! I was counting on you! This is terrible! If she keeps that mask..." The mask seller was freaking out, to say the least. She shook Ed by the shoulders until he almost got whiplash. For the first time Ed had seen, she opened her eyes. Her irises were disconcertingly small and solid black. Still, that grin never left her face, though now there was thinly veiled dismay and horror behind it.

"What's the big deal? So what if it turned me into a kid and put one person into a coma? Even though that person was my brother... How much damage could that girl do with it?"

"You don't understand! That mask could bring about the end of the world!" Ed snorted in disbelief. "You don't believe me? It is called Majora's Mask. Thousands of years ago, it was used by an ancient tribe in hexing rituals, but it kept growing in power and anger." (_How could a mask be angry? _Ed inserted, but the comment was ignored) "Eventually, they had no choice but to seal it away. It resurfaced again eventually, and nearly brought about the end of the world because of the loneliness of one child. A courageous young lad managed to seal away the evil, for what we thought was for good..."

"But it's back again." Ed still had trouble believing her, but he went along with it for now.

"Yes! This is terrible. The last time the mask resurfaced, it's wearer tried to bring down the moon. It appears that history is to repeat itself. You must get that mask back! If not... the world itself will be destroyed in a wave of fire and trembling earth."

"But how? She kicked my ass the last time I confronted her. Without alchemy or any weapons, I can't do anything. And even if I did stop her, the moon would keep falling. The world is screwed either way."

"Not necessarily. The hero called four giants to stop the moon. You just have to do it again."

"How? And how do you know all this?"

"Are you aware of how and why your country came to be?"

"Yeah. A Homunculus that was created in Xerxes- who was responsible for it's destruction and turning my dad into a Philosopher's Stone- created other homunculi and took over the countries that used to be here. He combined them all into Amestris and started a military with a State Alchemist program to search for sacrifices, so on the next solar eclipse, he could turn Amestris into a Philosopher's Stone and consume 'God.'"

"Exactly. But what of the people that remained from the other countries?"

"I assume they just integrated themselves into the new country, right?"

"Some of them, yes. Others, those of us with pointed ears, could sense the evil radiating from that- Homunculus, was it?- Yes, that Homunculus. We went into hiding, and to this day live in secret from the rest of the world."

"Why are you telling me this? And how the hell did you guys manage that?"

"I tell you this because I sense something familiar about you. It is similar to the feeling I had when I spent time in the capitol of one of the hidden lands, when I was near the Princess. You have an aura of power about you, one that is a gift from the gods. You have a destiny far greater than you realize, one that will carry you to the lands that are hidden." Ed snorted again.

"Yeah, because the gods love me so much... I'm a sinner. I treaded on God's land, where mortals are forbidden. I've been paying for it. God and me don't get along so well. And I ask again: how the hell did you manage to hide whole countries? I've been all over Amestris, and not once have I seen anyone with ears like yours before, or that same creepy feeling you give me." He crossed to the table and sat down. As he spoke, he seemed to grow wearier, as if the weight of the world broke him through his thoughts.

The Mask Seller nodded as if she expected this. "So you do feel it. As an alchemist who has seen the Truth of the Gods, I would expect no less. That you can use one of the tools passed down by a hidden tribe at all is proof enough: you have magic within you. What you sense within me, and will sense within many of the hidden people is that same magic." Edward cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Magic. Really."

"You do not believe me? What else could hide such great numbers of people for so long? What else could provide the alchemy? It is the residual magic in the earth that fuels your science, and those who are skilled in magic are more skilled in alchemy." Ed still looked disbelieving. He did, after all, firmly believe she was at least half off her nut. "Still no? Let me see (Find Japanese for The Lens of Truth) for a moment." She held out her hand expectantly.

Because he was so deeply in thought, weighing his previous knowledge of the world with his new experiences to reevaluate his beliefs, he barely registered the sudden change in topic. Edward's well thought out and very coherent reply was simply "The huh and what now?"

"Oh, you must know it as what they called it in Verità. The Lens of Truth, I believe?" Ed grumbled, but dug out the Lens again. He held it out to her, and she took it before Ed could blink. Before he could ask what she was doing with it, she set it on the floor beside the mask she had just made. She kneeled in front of the two objects, and started speaking in a strange language.

A feeling of dread settled into the pit of his stomach as he realized from where he recognized it. His mind turned back to eight years ago, when the Truth was shoved into his brain. It was many of the things he shoved to the back of his mind in order to retain his sanity. Now that he was hearing it again, he found that he subconsciously understood it, thanks to the Truth. He was surprised to hear it spoken again, because the only time he had ever heard it spoken before was by the Truth Him/Her/Itself, and that was only after he had gone through the gate. As the Mask Seller spoke the old language, flashes of an ancient syllabary flew through his mind, and understanding came with it.

"You understood what I just said, correct?" She stood up and handed the Lens of Truth back to Ed.

"Yeah. It was pretty much 'All-Seeing God, answer my call. Bless this mask with your eyes. Truth, I beseech you. Grant this mask your eyes. Don't let us be tricked by illusion and lies. Bless this mask with your eyes.'"

"Good, you won't have any problems when you arrive. We'll get into this more tomorrow. Now, it is late. Tomorrow, I will teach you how to find the hidden lands, and how to act inside them. It is imperative that you learn." With that, she began cleaning up her mask-making kit, and moved into the living room to set up her bed. Sensing that there wouldn't be much more conversation that night, and deciding he had enough to think about as it was, he followed suit and got ready for bed.

He realized with a pang that the last time he was told to get to bed was when his mom was still alive. Granny Pinako never minded when they got to bed, because she knew they could take care of themselves well enough to do it themselves. If not, they would learn the hard way not to stay up very late again. Missing both his mother and his brother and inserting a mental "bastard" in acknowledgement of his father, he somberly climbed into bed.

He found sleep difficult that night. By now, he should have been used to falling asleep alone, but tonight was very different from the nights he spent in Creta. Tonight, his head was simply too full. Far too much had happened today. He was kind of glad that he saw Hawkeye today, but the circumstances could have been better, and he doubted that she didn't tell Mustang. The change in Padora had been startling, too. She seemed to act exactly like a toddler, mood swings and all. The only difference, besides the sadism, was that she was a grown woman, and had much more power at her disposal to use when she used force to get her way. She obviously did not think of the consequences of her actions. If she did, she certainly didn't care about them. All of that floated through Edward's mind, occasionally garnering enough of his attention to focus on them, but his mind always returned to the conversation he had finished not an hour ago, and all of his thoughts centered around two things, both of which he had vehemently denied for as long as he could remember.

The first was magic, and the second was the existence of God (or Gods, as it may be). Even when he was little, he had never believed in either. His mom wasn't religious, and his teachers for many years were alchemy books. He never read a fairy tale, or stopped to consider fantasy. He was a scientist, born and bred. If it couldn't be explained by science, science wasn't trying hard enough. If it couldn't be proven by science, it didn't exist. He proved his opinion of God well enough in Liore when he was talking to Rose. Gods simply didn't exist. The closest thing there was to God was the Truth, and He/She/It wasn't something most people would want to worship.

As for magic, before yesterday- God, was it really only yesterday?-, he simply knew it couldn't exist. The closest thing to magic was alchemy, and it was a science. You understood what matter was made of, broke it down to its most basic form, and then built it back up as something new. The product had to be of equal mass of the materials, and it had to have a similar chemical structure. You couldn't get something from nothing; he knew that better than anyone. If magic had existed, he and Al would never have had to suffer the way they had. Al would never have had his soul bonded to a suit of armor. Even if it had been, Al could have gotten his body back sooner. Mustang wouldn't still be blind. Havoc would still be able to walk.

And yet... Edward found himself faced with something unexplainable. He couldn't bring himself to call it magic, but he knew it couldn't be science. Changing the human body took a great toll, and Padora didn't seem to lose anything. Neither did Ed or Al. Al was knocked out after Ed was changed, and there was no way he could have gotten his leg back. It was impossible, but he was living proof that it had happened. Magic could explain a few things, like the body he had been stuck in for almost twenty-four hours and how the Lens of Truth functioned. If the Mask Seller was telling the truth, it would explain how the lands hid themselves, and the weird vibe he got from her. There was enough evidence that those hidden lands existed. After all, he knew their language and caught glimpses of them in the Gate. With these uncertain thoughts in mind, Edward fell asleep.


	4. Learning

**Nothing to say here, except that I still don't own anything.**

_**Dawn of the Second Day: 144 Hours Remain**_

The next morning, the smell of breakfast wafting through the house brought Edward to alertness. Still half asleep, he stumbled into the kitchen to investigate the smell. It smelled good, but Ed had no idea what it was. Even after nodding to the Mask Seller, sitting down at the table, and mumbling an awkward "thank you" for the breakfast she made, he still had no idea what she had made. It was soupy, with some kind of fish, cheese, and pumpkin, along with some vegetables and spices Ed had never seen before. It wasn't bad. He figured it was just some dish that was common in the hidden lands, whatever those were, and he didn't comment on it.

When they finished breakfast, they cleared the table, and washed the dishes. "Well, now that we've been properly fed, I suppose we should begin. But where to start, where to start? Oh, I know. How much Hylian do you know?"

Ed switched to Hylian, the language he learned in the Gate. "I know all of it; the writing system, the dialect we're speaking, and the dialect they speak elsewhere."

The Mask Seller nodded. "Good, good. You should get in the habit of speaking it. The Hylians and Terminese will already be wary of you because of your ears. More familiarity will ease at least some of the tension they will feel toward you. Besides, these are words of power. What I will teach you today should never be learned by the general Amestrian populace. How much Hylian and Terminese history do you know?"

"Absolutely nothing." She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"This is going to take a while then. History is passed down in Hyrule and Termina, not through books and universities, but instead through the legends that live on the wind's breath. These legends are considered truth, and taught to all Terminese children. Even if you don't believe them at first, they are all true, and known to be fact in Termina. If you want their trust- which you do- you need to avoid criticizing our religion. I know of your scorn for religion, but you must hold your tongue."

"The first legend...?" Ed was getting more than a little impatient. As loath as he was to accept a religion, he was always excited to learn. He sat a little straighter in his seat, held his hands in his lap, and focused on the Mask Seller with a gaze so intense that it unnerved most people. The Mask Seller however, was not most people, and didn't seem to mind.

"Yes, we will begin at the beginning. In the dawn of creation, there was One Great Goddess and One Great Truth. The Great Goddess created Time itself, and began and directed its flow. The One Great Truth created distinctions between the realm in which He/She/It lived and the realm in which the Goddess lived, with a realm between them. Before parting for Their separate realms, They worked together to create three Daughters who would act on Their behalf in the realm between, so that the Great Ones would only need to interfere when the need was great. The Three were given the gifts of the Great Ones to carry to the new realm.

"The first, Din, was blessed with Power. When all in the realm was chaos, she descended and created a base for her sisters to work, cutting the stone with her stormy breath and shaping the stone into land with her strong, flaming arms. The second, Nayru, was blessed with Wisdom. She brought the natural laws into the world, and rained her magic on the land with her water. The third, Farore, was blessed with Courage. She lay her earth atop the stone, and Nayru's rains seeped into the ground. Farore sowed seeds into her earth, and breathed life into them. In this way, all manner of plants came into being, and all manner of animals came into being as well.

"Farore's gift of Life was not yet fully consumed, so the Three Goddesses came together to create beings above all others. The new beings were created with the Gods in mind. The first beings were the humans. Their ears were long and pointed, their bodies were lean and lithe, their skin was fair, and they were built to survive in many different environments. They were given minds that would bring together Power, Wisdom, and Courage. When these people came into being, The Great Goddess of Time and the One Great Truth came to the realm between, and made the humans the chosen race of the Gods. The Great Goddess of Time, She Who Grants Peace and Miracles, blessed them with profound magic, and made them rulers of the land. The One Great Truth, Who Knows All and Protects Balance, gave them the gift of His/Her/It's Great Art, Rentankinjutsu.

"Her gift of Life not yet nearly depleted, Farore bade her sisters to create beings from what they had wrought in this realm, and create they did. Din left for the places her sisters did not touch, the desert and the mountains. She created the people of the desert first, a race of women modeled after herself. Each had vibrant red hair, the vivid red eyes, and tan skin. Only once every 100 years would a male be born, and he would be their king. She named them the Gerudo. From the stones of the mountains, she created a race of men. They were ungainly, and only vaguely resembled the gods. They were a stubborn race, both mentally and physically. She named them Goron. And Farore breathed life into them all.

"Nayru went to the lakes, rivers, and oceans she created, and took fish from the water. She molded them into a more human form, and gave them the gift of life on land and in the water. She gave them the name Zora. She then took the largest fish that was left, and gave it intelligence, telling it to watch over the people she had just made. Then, in the time between the setting of the sun and the rising of the moon, she crafted the shadows themselves into beings. They were strong and noble, and would serve the royal family of Hyrule as bodyguards, tacticians, and whatever other role needed filing. They were called Sheikah. And Farore breathed life into them all.

"Farore first took some of the Cuccoos she had made, and changed their form. The feathers on their bodies became green, and their necks became elongated and lost their feathers. Their heads lost their feathers and beaks, and became more like those of the Hylians. She named them the Oocca, and they were to live in the cities in the sky, watching over Hyrule. She then went to the forests, to the first and oldest tree. She plucked seeds from its branches, and planted them. When they sprouted, they had the form of children, with blonde hair and blue eyes. They were called the Kokiri. She gave the oldest tree sentient life, and bade it to watch over the children she had created. She made little fairies to watch the children when the Great Deku Tree could not. And Farore breathed life into them all.

"With only some of the Gift of Live left, the three golden goddesses came together to make two more races. The first was based on the white fairies that watched over the Kokiri. They were red, and would heal all those who sought them out. The last was the wisest and most powerful. They were large, with humanoid forms. They were called the Great Fairies, and they granted those worthy of their powers with gifts. Din gave them Power. Nayru gave them Wisdom. Farore gave them Courage. And Farore breathed life into them all.

"The last creations of the Goddesses were four great Giants. They were a part of the land, and took it upon themselves to protect the mortal races in the goddesses' stead. All of the gifts of the Gods were now spent, so the three golden goddesses returned to the heavens. At the place they left our realm, they left behind a sacred golden power." She paused to let Edward ask questions, since he was practically bursting with them.

"What existed before the first two Gods? Was the One Great Truth the same being that calls him/her/itself 'The World, The Universe, God, Truth, All, One, and Each Person? What is Rentankinjutsu?" He had more, but he was able to restrain himself.

"Don't ask so many at once. You're a genius right? You should know by now that you won't get any answers unless you give me time to answer them." Ed had the sense to look mollified. "In order: no one knows, yes, and it is what became alchemy and alkahestry. In Hylian and Terminese, alchemy is called renkinjutsu, and alkahestry is rentanjutsu. Any other questions while we're at a good stopping point?"

"They'll probably be answered later."

"Alright. For a long while, there was peace and prosperity throughout the land. Eventually though, there was a divide between those who worshipped the goddesses, and those who worshipped the Giants they created. There was a war over which should truly be worshipped, and history is unclear as to who was the winner. No matter who won, that war marked the divide between Termina and Hyrule. For more Hylian history, you'll have to ask a Hylian. The Terminese left Hyrule for the land by the sea. The Guardian Giants went with them. The Deku settled in the Southern Swamp, and one of the Guardians went with them. The Gorons settled in the northern mountains, which they called Snowhead. One of the Guardians went with them. The Zoras settled in the ocean to the west, and called it Great Bay. One of the Guardians went with them. The humans spread over the canyon to the east and the middle of the field that connected and divided them all. The Guardian went with those in the eastern canyons, which they called Ikana. For a long time, there was peace.

"What happened in the course of the next several generations is unclear, but Ikana fell to ruin, and the only humans remaining were the ones in Clock Town, the name of the settlement at the center of the land. When this happened, the Giants spoke to the people. They said 'Oh, people. We have decided to protect the people while we sleep in our temples 100 steps north, 100 steps south, 100 steps east, and 100 steps south. If you have need of us, simply call out in a loud voice saying 'The mountain blizzard has trapped us,' or 'the ocean is about to swallow us!' Your cries will carry to us.'

"And so the Giants fell into a deep slumber, broken only when the people had need of their Guardians. But eventually, there was unrest. An imp wearing a mask used its power to curse the land, and even brought down the moon. But all was not lost. A Hero, wearing the green of fields, used an ancient instrument to call the Giants to stop the moon. He sealed away the evil in the mask, for what should have been forever." She paused again, now finished with Terminese history. Ed launched into more questions.

"What was the instrument that hero used?"

"An ocarina. I don't know the specifics, but I think it's been passed down through the Royal Family of Hyrule."

"What about that gold power thing you mentioned before?"

"I'm not sure. There wasn't much known about it before the split between Hyrule and Termina."

"Where does Majora's Mask fit into all of this? And why do you talk like you're not a part of either country?"

"My tribe separated from Hyrule long before Termina did. We have been most closely linked to Termina, so I know more of the lore from Termina. As for the mask... like I said last night, it was used in ancient hexing rituals. Eventually, it grew angry, and nearly brought about the end of the world. It was sealed away for many years, but eventually it was found again. More than that, I cannot say."

"What exactly were those giants? Why did that imp try to use that mask? It must have known something bad would happen."

"I do not know. If you want the rest of your answers questioned, you must travel to Clock Town and ask the people there."

"How? It's hidden, isn't it?"

"I will teach you how to find the hidden lands, but first you must know how to act in them. Amestrian culture is very different from Terminese and Hylian culture, after all."


	5. Learning and Clock Town

**I don't own it.**

"**Speaking"**

'_**Gesturing'**_

_**Dawn of the Third Day: 120 Hours Remain**_

When Edward looked back and remembered the next day, he was never quite sure how he was able to process all the information he had to absorb. Aside from perfectly speaking and comprehending a language that he learned during the most traumatizing experience of his life, he had to memorize different greetings, bows, gestures, postures, apologies, and even what to say before and after a meal.

There were thirty different greetings in Hylian and Terminese, ranging from use with people of importance to the lowest beggars on the street. Each greeting had at least five variations in politeness, depending on the difference in rank and how large of a difference it was. There were fifteen different ways to bow; some little more than a nod of the head, while others were grand, sweeping gestures that made use of the entire body.

While speaking, there were a number of gestures used for emphasis, which made the already complicated verbal language even more confusing; the gestures could seem to offset what was said, but upon reflection would add a level of depth to conversation not possible with Amestrian, Xingese, Cretian, or any other language Ed knew. There were at least a dozen different gestures that could be used with any one word or phrase that could describe the level of emotion felt, the amount of thought put into a response, or even ask another question entirely. There were hundreds upon thousands of combination of gestures. All of these things also took facial expression into account; the face expressed what it could, and the hands and arms elaborated. The truly skilled could communicate with gestures alone, and only spoke to describe the appearance of things or to be polite. Apologies were often made with the hand language, while the spoken word merely clarified the reason for apology.

All of the hand language, postures, bowing, and other rules of conduct in Hylian and Terminese society together seemed to form a kind of dance that Edward had never before imagined could have come about. The truly eloquent were called Masters of Form and Word because ordinary men would weep to look upon their daily conversations and interactions with those around them- there was simply that much beauty and grace in everything they did. To speak a well-spoken sentence was to craft something akin to a spider's web; each strand with it's own meaning and a piece of something much greater than itself. One good sentence would leave listeners interpreting it for a year.

Edward, with his child's hands, spent nearly the whole day practicing gestures, even when the lessons moved away from them. Even his genius could not absorb and reproduce everything he was taught in only a morning. But learn he did, and soon they had to break for lunch, and then Edward spent the span of time between lunch and dinner practicing his gestures.

Dinner that night was simple; just fish, bread, and fruit with milk from bottles that read "Cheateu Romani." Ed avoided it like the plague on principle, and was dismayed to hear that milk was the primary beverage of both lands.

"Why do you not drink your milk, Edward?" '_Mild exasperation. Indulgent moderately amused curiosity.'_ Her tone and gestures were innocent enough, but the Mask Seller had heard from around town that he avoided milk like the plague and was smiling like the cat that swallowed the canary. For Ed's sake, she was speaking full sentences, even though by this time he could speak sentences with few words and hardly ever colored his sentences with qualifiers anymore.

"Humans were not meant to drink anything from a cow. Especially not something that is white and somewhat creamy." '_Severely incredulous exasperated abhorrence.'_ The Mask Seller's delicately raised eyebrow was all she needed to counter Ed's argument, but she corrected his thought verbally anyway.

"Edward, that is not Amestrian milk. The quality of milk outside of Hyrule and Termina has severely degraded to a point where it is almost indistinguishable from proper milk. At least try it before you decide that you hate it." '_Patience. Mildly disgusted incredulity. Mild imploring.'_ Very reluctantly and with the promise of the Mask Seller's painful humiliation when she least expects it, Ed pinched his nose and chugged the milk, doing his level best to avoid tasting the milk.

Fortunately for Edward, he managed to taste the milk. It was like nothing he'd ever had. Amestrian milk was watery and warm because that was the only way they could preserve it long enough to drink when the cows weren't producing milk. Terminese milk, however, was thick and smooth. It was creamy and cold, and Edward found himself refreshed. All of the energy he had spent that day, both physically and mentally, was completely recovered, and he felt like he could work for days on end without sleeping or eating. Ed's eyes widened, and he found that he couldn't express how much he liked that milk in words alone, so he gestured with abandon. '_Profoundly amazed satisfaction. Slightly confused request for explanation'._

The Mask Seller nodded and explained. "Cheateu Romani is a type of milk from Termina. It comes from the cows bred on Romani Ranch, and is a medicinal delicacy. While normal milk from both Hyrule and Termina is medicinal and can heal some wounds, only Cheateu Romani can heal all the wounds one may have, lift minor jinxes and curses, and restore energy to the extent that one never grows hungry, thirsty, or tired for exactly seventy-two hours after drinking it. It is expensive, costing 200 rupees at the least." Edward nodded and filed the information away for later.

"Now Edward, it is time for your quest to begin in earnest. Take this Mask of Truth and the Lens of Truth, and go to the point exactly between the centermost point and the northernmost point of Amestris. Wear the mask in conjunction with the use of the Lens, and you shall find the entrance to Clock Town, Termina's central settlement. You need to discover how to stop the moon from falling on the land." '_Listen closely. Extreme importance.' Follow exactly._ Ed nodded.

"What will you be doing?" _'Polite question. Inclusion of planning.'_

"I will be focusing on getting that mask away from Padora." _'Great importance. Acknowledgement of thought.'_ Ed nodded again and packed enough clothes to last a few days and they went together to the train station_. _They both got tickets to Central for the next day, but Ed got a ticket that transferred to another train that would stop in a small town near where Ed would need to look for the entrance to Clock Town.

_**Dawn of the Fourth Day: 96 Hours Remain**_

Having spent much of the last several years of his life on trains, Edward had a wealth of experiences with which to compare the next day. The journey he underwent fell in line with his other experiences with trains surprisingly well. Someone much taller and calmer than him admonished him on his language and manners and implored that he be politer. He spent a few hours winning (cheating) at poker and other card games and reviewed his plans with his traveling companion. He silently promised that he would get his brother back to normal as he stared out the window, which he wound up falling asleep against despite the energy that still surged through him from the day before. There were a few differences, sure, like the creepy smile that was trained on him all the time and the gesturing during conversation that had already become second nature and was on it's way to being a subconscious part of conversation, but it was mostly the same. The similarity comforted him in a way.

When they arrived in Central in the early afternoon, Edward bade a hesitant, if not slightly awkward, farewell to his companion and switched trains. The ride to the small country town was uneventful and dull, and Edward found himself longing for some kind of companionship or company to make the ride more bearable. He figured that he'd be used to a lack of traveling companion by now; he'd been traveling alone for about a year after all. No matter how he tried to reassure himself that he didn't need to travel with anyone to get things done, he still found himself unable to completely fight off the loneliness.

He arrived in Jintel about an hour before nightfall. Jintel was a small town that would have escaped the notice of the railroads if it hadn't been exactly halfway between Central and Northern HQ. He wandered out of town before anyone noticed that a kid was on his own, and put on the Mask of Truth when he was in the shadows cast by Jintel's lights. The light was fading fast by the time he was near where the entrance to Clock Town should be, so he put the Lens of Truth to his eye and frantically searched for any hint of a secret civilization, cursing when he realized that he had no idea what he was looking for.

_What the hell was I thinking? Not asking the ONE PERSON who knows what I'm looking for to tell me what I need to do... ugh, I'm a moron._ The lack of light was starting to bother him; the sun went down sooner this far north, and Ed found another thing to complain about. _Stupid sun going down before six o'clock. Making me fumble around in the dark for I have no idea what while the moon grows a creepy face and stares at me._ The moon had indeed grown a face. Its eyes were bloodshot, and the irises were the same color as the eyes on Majora's Mask. It stared down at the world with an insane grin that did not match its eyes. Its eyes were wide and horrified, and when combined with the grin, the moon had the appearance of a madman in pain, silently pleading for the end of his torment.

Edward turned away from his examinations of the moon with a shudder, and put the Lens back up to his eye, gazing this way and that in his search of the entrance to the hidden lands. After another five minutes of his search, he noticed an odd light out of the corner of his eye.

He couldn't seem to focus on it, but was able to determine that it was not moving and he was able to keep it in his vision. He moved towards it with all the caution and care that he exercised as the Fullmetal Alchemist- that is to say, with all the grace of a drunken cow... or Roy Mustang. Same thing, really. When he finally reached it, he found himself consumed by it. It wasn't particularly bright, but he still couldn't see anything past it. It was really nothing more than a blank, white background that he jogged through, eventually coming upon a corridor that twisted impossibly; as he stood at one end of the corridor, the room corkscrewed until the floor was on the ceiling and the ceiling was on the floor. He moved forward more cautiously now, and was surprised and fascinated to find that he remained on the floor the entire time, and that the room simply seemed to twist around him. When he reached the door, he looked back at the hallway and shook his head in bemusement before opening the doors.

He found that he was standing in the middle of a giant mechanism of some sort. A waterwheel turned in front of him, which turned a long, thick, pole that stretched into the room above him. He climbed the ramp to the room above him, and found himself marveling at the intricacy of the mechanism above him. Cogs and gears turned above him, the smallest only as large as his thumb and the largest easily thirty feet across.

After marveling at the mechanism, Edward mentally braced himself to enter a completely different culture. The Mask Seller had warned him to tread carefully, and that his usual methods would not work in Termina or Hyrule, because to both lands, he was only a child with unusual eyes and ears. He put on his best "lost little kid" face and opened the wooden double doors that would take him to the town proper.

Edward noticed first that he was now standing in what appeared to be the town's main thoroughfare, and that the sun was about to set here. There was a large stone wall which he presumed to surround the entire town, and a tower four stories high stood in the middle of the square. He turned around to look at where he just came from and realized the large mechanism was a huge clock tower. _Guess that's why they call it Clock Town_, he thought. He could see a guard standing at attention at a gate that probably led outside the town. There were three main roads that led to the separate districts of the town, with signs above them declaring where they led, but did not go into very much detail beyond "North Clock Town," "East Clock Town," and "West Clock Town."

Landmarks and roads now noted and memorized, Edward turned his attention to the locals. They all wore simple, modest clothing that made him glad he kept the tunics. Tunics and breeches were common among the men, and all of the women wore skirts and blouses that fell to their ankles. Modesty and customs here had obviously not evolved with the rest of the world. The people themselves all appeared to be similar to Amestrians, with the exception of their long, pointed ears.

He must have been looking around for too long, because a woman with a kind face came over to him eventually. She was very pretty, with large blue eyes, a long face, and red hair that brushed her chin. She had a motherly feel about her, and her concerned gaze reminded him with a pang of his own mother. Sensing no bad intentions from her, he decided that now would be as good a time as ever to begin acting like a lost, scared child. He had arranged his face into convincing anxiety and started bouncing from one foot to another by the time she got over to him, and he was internally congratulating himself on what was sure to be an excellent performance.

"Little boy, are you lost?" _'Gentle concern. Worry. Desire to help.'_

Ed ignored the jab at his height, internally promising that something was going to die in a fire later, nodded, and gestured _'Fear. Worry.'_ "I can't find my mommy, and I don't know where I am. I've never been here before, and we were separated, and I'm tired, but I don't have anywhere to sleep." He gestured again. _'Fear. Worry.'_ His assumption that she was a natural mothering kind of person was proven right when she bent down and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry little boy. I run an inn, and I'd be happy to let you stay until we can find your mommy. My name is Anzu. What's your name?" _'Reassurance. Guidance. Support. Question.'_

"It's Edward ma'am." She smiled and took his hand, leading him down the eastern road to a small, two-floor building with a large bell on the roof. The sun had truly set by now, and torches were being lit around town. It was beautiful in its own way; everything was simple, and everyone seemed genuinely content with their lives. It was very much like Risembool, except on a larger scale. He let nostalgia wash over him briefly with a melancholy smile and let himself be led to a warm bed and free meal.

The bed was very nice: a soft down mattress, soft cotton sheets, and fluffy feather pillow. The food, however, was another story entirely. It was some kind of stew, and Ed could recognize a few of the ingredients, like different vegetables and meat, but there were also ingredients that were... questionable. For instance, he could swear that there was red bean paste in the soup, and that wasabi had somehow been worked in as well. The only relief was that he was able to wash it down with milk that was, though not as good as what the Mask Seller had, still miles above anything he'd had in Amestris.

_I never thought I'd see the day where I'm actually pleased to wash down anything with milk_, he thought as he lay gazing up at the ceiling later. He was sharing a room with Anzu, who was the innkeeper of what he learned to be the Stock Pot Inn, which she proudly proclaimed had been in her family for several generations- though without the large number of sparkles and absurd shirt removal that usually accompanied such a statement. Anzu had just fallen asleep, and he wanted to wait an hour or two to make sure she was deeply asleep before he snuck out. He had seen several posters around town that described some sort of carnival, and he wanted to figure out what all the fuss was about before he was expected to know about it. Unfortunately, Anzu turned out to be a very light sleeper. When he opened the door with nary a creak, she sat up and asked where he was going. When he replied that he really needed to "go use the potty," she went with him and waited outside the door to make sure he knew how to get back to their room. Giving up on sneaking about for that night (and secretly enjoying the attention), he settled into a fitful sleep.

_**Dawn of the Fifth Day: 72 Hours Remain**_

When he woke up, it was to find that Anzu was cooking again, and that breakfast would probably be a repeat of dinner. He groaned and dressed in another tunic (red of course) and went to eat with the other guests. By listening to the conversation around him, he was able to determine that there was an important carnival coming up that the whole town was preparing for, and that people from all over the country were going to be pouring in to take part in it. He couldn't tell what the carnival was going to be about from just the conversation at the table, but he overheard some of the kids staying at the inn that someone they called Great-Granny Keia would be telling stories about the carnival later, so he figured he'd simply listen and learn, grateful that what he needed to know was practically falling into his lap.

Anzu assured him that she'd go around town, looking for his mother while he sat and listened to the stories, so he was essentially free for the day. He followed the other children to a large room. There was a large fireplace crackling merrily in the corner, and there were many mats and cushions for kids to sit and lay on as the listened. Great-Granny Keia turned out to be the daughter of one of the townsfolk that almost witnessed the end of the world the last time Majora's Mask was on a rampage. Her first story answered the first question burning in Ed's mind.

"Be still, children. I'm beginning now." _'Gentle admonishment.'_ "This story is called 'The Carnival of Time.' The carnival is almost here, so it's good for you to learn its meaning. Now...

"Each year, the season of harmony begins when the sun and the moon are in alignment. Paying homage to the way that both nature and time are tirelessly in the process of progressing, the Carnival of Time is when the peoples of the four worlds celebrate that harmony and request fruitfulness for the year. For ages, people have worn masks resembling the giants who are the gods of the four worlds. Now, it is custom for each person to bring a homemade mask to the Carnival of Time. It is said that if a couple united on the day of the festival and dedicated a mask as a sign of their union, it would bring good luck. The centerpiece of the carnival is the clock tower, and on the eve of all the festivities, the doors to its roof are opened. From atop the clock tower roof, a ceremony to call the gods is held and an ancient song is sung. All of these festivities for the Carnival of Time are held so that we may ask the gods for a rich harvest in the year to come."

As soon as the story ended, the children began chattering again, and Edward reminded himself why he didn't like most kids before Keia quieted them down after she thought they'd gotten enough talking out of their systems that they could settle down and listen to more stories. After a few more stories, Great-Granny Keia began to take requests, so Edward asked about the giants. The other children groaned and glared at him, but he just scowled and turned to face Keia.

"The story of the four giants? This story is quite long, but it is good for all of you to hear it, so I just read it with some extra gusto. Ahem...

"This tale is from long ago when all the people weren't separated into four worlds like they are now. In those times all the people lived together, and the four giants lived among them. On the day of the festival that celebrates the harvest, the giants spoke to the people... 'We have chosen to guard the people while we sleep... 100 steps north. 100 steps south. 100 steps east. 100 steps west. If you have need, call us in a loud voice by declaring something such as 'The mountain blizzard has trapped us.' Or 'The ocean is about to swallow us.' Your cries shall carry to us...' Now then... there was one who was saddened by all this.

"A little imp. The imp was a friend of the giants since before they had created the four worlds.

"'Why must you leave?

"'Why do you not stay?'

"The childhood friend felt neglected, so he spread his anger across the four worlds. Repeatedly, he wronged all people. Overwhelmed with misfortune, the people sang the song of prayer to the giants who lived in each of the four compass directions. The giants heard their cry and responded with anger. 'Oh, imp. Oh, imp. We are the protectors of the people. You have caused the people pain. Oh, imp, leave these four worlds! Otherwise, we shall tear you apart!'

"The imp was frightened and saddened.

"He had lost his old friends.

"The imp returned to the heavens, and harmony was restored to the four worlds. And the people rejoiced and the worshiped the giants of the four worlds like gods. And they lived happily... ever after..."

This story put many of the listeners to sleep, but Edward heard it all. He wondered at the similarities between himself and the imp. The imp couldn't understand why his friends had left, and so was angry at them. The same thing happened between him and his father... Maybe there should have been some apologies sooner... Winry must be so pissed at him by now... He had, after all, left his brother in Risembool in a coma while he went off on some grand adventure. He'd need to apologize to her, and explain what happened...

It was time for lunch by the time all of the children woke up, so they took a break to eat before they continued with stories. Anzu seemed to have unofficially adopted him, so he continued to play the part of a child, animatedly describing things he noticed the other children doing and the stories he heard.

After lunch, they listened to many more stories, and it was getting late by the time they got to the last story of importance. It seemed to be what all of the other children were there to hear, because once they heard Great-Granny Keia was going to tell it, they immediately perked up and nudged their dozing friends awake.

"This last story is a tale my mother often told me around the time of the carnival. During the span of days before the festival where she was married, the moon began to grow closer and closer to the earth, and it wore a sinister face, much as it is doing now. The world was plagued with monsters in those days. They roamed the fields, robbing and attacking travelers. The world was in chaos. The Southern Swamp was poisoned and dying, and the Deku King would not listen to reason and abandon his dying home. The northern mountains of Snowhead were trapped in a blizzard that threatened to destroy even the Gorons, despite the spring that had arrived everywhere else. To the west, Great Bay and Zora Cape had become murky and warm, and the fish were dying. The east, however, was most frightening of all. The spirits of the dead wandered the cursed lands, and none who went to explore them returned.

"Life in Clock Town was not much better. The people were divided; some wanted to hold the festival like always and ignore the problems in the land. They did not want to accept that the moon would fall and crush them. Others urged the people to flee, but many of them were ignored. As the end drew closer and closer, rumors began to spread across the land of a boy dressed in the green of fields that saved the four worlds from their despair.

"They said that he appeared in the swamp and rescued the Deku Princess from the clutches of a monster and kept the Dekus from going to war against the monkeys. He lifted the curse on the Woodfall Temple, which restored the toxic swamp to normal. They said he aided the Goron Hero, Darmani III in saving his people from the cold winter. When he broke the curse on Snowhead Temple, spring finally came to the mountains. They said he helped the Zoras retrieve the eggs stolen from the daughter of the sage of Great Bay Temple, and lifted its curse as well. They said he went into Ikana alone, and calmed the spirits of the dead who still roamed there. He stormed Stone Tower Temple himself, which even the great armies of the world could not do, and lifted its curse; finally giving peaceful rest to the living dead.

"For the first time, people dared to hope. He traveled the land in only three days, easing the fears of both nations and their peoples. And then, in their final hours, when doom drew nigh, he climbed to the top of the clock tower and played the song to summon the giants on a sacred instrument. Together, they stopped the moon from falling, and he broke the curse upon it. The next morning, the moon went back into the sky, and the hero clothed in green disappeared, never to be seen again."

Her tale over and stories done for the day, all of the children broke up. They ate dinner, which was marginally better than breakfast or lunch if only for the exclusion of red bean paste in the recipe, and went their separate ways. As Edward lay in bed that night, he realized tomorrow would be the fifth day since he was turned into a child. There would only be three more days until the moon fell. He looked into the sky. It certainly looked like the moon would fall soon. It was very large in the sky now. With this uneasy thought in mind, he fell asleep.

Edward dreamed deeply that night. His dreams were vivid, and more often than not were nothing but nightmares. He dreamt of the night of the failed transmutation more than once and in painfully accurate detail. He dreamt of his mother, whose voice changed to be Padora's and she struck him, and he turned around to see Alphonse grinning at him like the moon and saying in a voice that was not his own, "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

Over and over, his nightmares assaulted him, until, near morning, the darkness fell away. Suddenly, he found himself standing near a pool of clear water. Around him was a meadow with bright green grass, vibrant flowers, and statues of three beautiful women scattered about. One of them had long hair in a ponytail and a ruby in a circlet on her forehead. She was dressed for battle, and had two scimitars at her side and a rod in her hand. Her expression was proud and determined and the name Din floated through his mind. The next statue was of a woman with hair that cascaded down her back and nearly to the floor. The gem in her circlet was a sapphire, and she carried a harp with a bow slung across her back. She wore a long, sweeping gown that put him in mind of refined elegance. She looked aloof, and the name Nayru came to the front of Ed's mind when he gazed upon her. The last statue of also of a woman, but she seemed tomboyish and playful. There was a sword at her back and a scroll in her hand. She was dressed much like Edward; she wore a tunic, breeches, and very practical boots. Her hair was much shorter than the others', only falling past her ears, and the gem in her circlet was an emerald. Her facial expression was tender and kind, and Edward's mind whispered Farore. She stood out the most to him.

He was broken out of his reverie by a noise behind him. He whipped around to see a woman behind him. She was about the same age as he should be, and had a regal face. Her hair was long and blonde, her eyes large and the blue of sapphires. She wore a pink gown decorated with many different symbols, one of which was reoccurring: a golden eagle with three triangles above its beak. There was a golden circlet on her brow, a cloak of swan feathers upon her shoulders, and her ears were long and pointed. Edward could not help but feel that he knew her somehow, and came to attention when she began speaking.

"I want to ask who you are, but I cannot help but think that I know you somehow..." _'Moderate confusion. Polite request. Invitation to speak.'_

_So she's nobility_, he could not help but think. It really wasn't all that surprising, even when Edward discounted the clothes and her mannerisms and the grace of her gestures. She seemed genuinely familiar, like a friend he'd half forgotten. "I knew you once," he replied, "though it was long ago. I think we've been waiting to meet for quite some time." _'Tentative understanding. Question of similarity. Familiar greeting.'_ "Your name was whispered in my mind, Princess Zelda. I believe we are fated to meet again."

"I believe so... neither of our dreams of late have been filled with peace, it seems. You must come and meet me in Hyrule Castle. We must speak in person." _'Surprisingly sure agreement. Serious concern and reflection. Kind, polite, but absolute order.'_ "To find Hyrule Castle, come to the outskirts of the largest city of the country in which we hide. The entrance is to the north and is marked by the crest of the royal family of Hyrule." Edward nodded, and the two of them sat at the edge of the pool, looking at the statues in the meadow and enjoying a reprieve from nightmares and each other's company.

_**Dawn of the Sixth Day: 48 Hours Remain**_

Morning did not come quickly enough for Edward's liking. He woke barely refreshed and tangled in his sheets. Anzu was looking at him with some concern. "Nightmares?" _Worry. Comfort._ Edward merely nodded and went downstairs to eat. He did not spend much time at the inn that day, instead preferring to explore the town. The district he had spent the most time in so far was East Clock Town, which was where the businesses, government buildings, and most of the residential areas were located.

South Clock Town was mostly just the town square and a thoroughfare to the other districts of town, though the laundry pool could be found in South Clock Town as well for those not wealthy enough to have the necessary equipment to do laundry in their own homes. West Clock Town was the shopping district, and also had the bank and post office. North Clock Town was the smallest and most interesting. It had a playground, where Edward saw many of the children from the previous day playing and laughing. It also had the Great Fairy's Fountain, which justified Ed's decision to stay a few more hours before going to meet Zelda.

Walking into the fountain was like walking into another world entirely. The walls were dark and there were no lights, except for an ethereal glow coming from the water of the fountain itself. The floor was polished marble, and there were arches in the shallow water. As he approached the pool, delighted laughter rang around him, seeming to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. He stopped in his tracks as the figure of a woman rose from the center of the pool.

She was quite beautiful. Her curvaceous figure, full lips, and... assets... reminded him heavily of Lust, except her bearing was completely different. Where Lust had been seductive and condescending, the Great Fairy made no attempts to be rude or made any suggestive comments at all, even though she wore nothing but leaves. They clung to her to avoid revealing too much, but she was still scantily clad. She wore knee-high brown boots that matched the golden glow of her skin very well. Her hair was the same shade as Alphonse's, her eyes were lavender, and her lips were naturally a shade of pink so vibrant that he had only ever seen it when girls wore makeup. She smiled warmly at him in greeting as she floated in front of him.

"Greetings, kind young one. I am the Great Fairy of Magic. I have been waiting for your arrival for some time. If you are going to save this land from its fate, then you must be stronger than you are now. I grant you this gift. Please take it." Her posture changed, and she spread her arms in front of her as a column of light enveloped him. The light was warm, and the warmth spread inside him and filled him with an alien power. The air began to swirl around him and the room took on a green hue. He stared in awe at his hands and the feel of power around and inside him as the Great Fairy began to speak again.

"I have just granted you the power to access and use magic. This gift will be vital on your journey. Use it well. Scattered across these lands are other Great Fairies like myself. Be sure to visit them when you are weary." With another delighted laugh, she disappeared into the fountain.

After some experimentation with magic involving the kids from yesterday, some very cold water, and sweet, sweet revenge for their jabs at his height as he passed, Ed discovered that he was unable to do very much with magic. Deciding to experiment more later, he determined that there was nothing else to do in Clock Town, so he made his way back to the clock tower and trudged back toward Amestris. The way back was much less interesting than the journey into Termina, so Edward occupied his time by making things look more badass. Flowers grew small spikes, bushes turned red, and other little things like that amused him as he made his way back to Jintel and boarded the train back to Central.

He made it to the northern outskirts of the city without much fuss, and soon found himself walking through the deserted slum towns that surrounded Central City. It didn't take too long to reach the edges of the slums, and Edward began to search for the crest of the royal family. After an hour or so of searching, he sensed something off about the field around him. Moving toward the disturbance, he saw three triangles in a pyramid carved into a weather-beaten rock. He congratulated himself on his awesomeness and touched the symbol, wondering how he was going to get to Hyrule. He felt a pulse from the rock that was similar to alchemy, and realized he needed to pour some of his own magic into the stone in order to pass. He tugged at the alien sensation inside him and directed it into the rock like he would an alchemical equation, and soon found himself kneeling beside a replica of the stone, except that it was at the end of a cobblestone street instead of in the middle of a grassy field. In the distance, there was a bustling town and beyond that, a mighty castle. He had finally found where the princess from his dream lived.


	6. Princess, Alchemist, and Returning

A/N: So, if you've been paying attention, you'll know that I accidentally uploaded this chapter by mistake the first time I tried uploading it. So, if you were confused, that would be why.

I'm not too sure of what I think about this chapter. I had to force some of it, and other bits are kind of cliché. I wound up sticking more in here then I thought I would, but some things turn out to be better. Ed's a little more in character in this chapter than he has been; having your world turned upside down only does so much to your personality.

'Hakase' = professor

'Touka koukan' = equivalent exchange

"Speaking"

'_Gesturing'_

_Thinking_

_**The Sixth Day Continued**_

Edward was begrudgingly thankful that he had been turned into a child. No one paid him any mind as he wandered through the town and absorbed the sights, looking this way and that at the new and exciting things in the market. He wished he had about ten more sets of eyes. There were street performers juggling, telling stories, and demonstrating magic for excited children and indulgent parents. Strange beings with long broad arms, short legs, and wide faces were peddling various explosives, which Ed leapt at with abandon. They didn't have any problems selling military-grade weaponry to a child, but they said they couldn't sell him anything if he didn't have a bomb bag. He would have bought one of theirs, but he was regrettably low on rupees. Fish-men were selling fish and jewelry, red-haired tan-skinned women were selling weapons, and Hylian humans were selling potions, shields, arrows, and every other thing imaginable.

One place Edward found himself inexplicably pulled toward was a building that looked similar to where the followers of Leto would gather to worship back in Liore when Cornello was still duping them with alchemy. As he approached it, the sounds of the hustle and bustle of the busy market square faded away, and the trickle of slow moving water and the chirping of birds replaced it. There was a shallow pool full of crystal clear water outside the temple with three large trees beside it. Four stones marked with the symbol of the Mask of Truth stood in front of the pool as well. Edward stopped by the pool, looking out over the water for a short while before making his way into the temple itself.

The entrance chamber was small, and there was a priest dressed in white and blue robes accepting donations in exchange for incense to burn at the alter. Ed passed the priest by in favor of moving into the temple proper, where he was struck with nostalgia and awe. The inside of the temple was inlaid with white marble from the floor to the walls and all the way across the ceiling. Large windows let in natural light that filled the temple with an unearthly glow. A small raised platform was marked with three triangles facing each other with circles between them, and farther into the temple was an alter with three glowing stones floating above it. The alter was the only splash of color in the entire temple. A red carpet, worn with age and many feet treading upon it, sat in front of the alter. The stones, from left to right, were a large emerald inlaid in gold, a large ruby in another gold setting, and three sapphires set in gold as well. The text on the alter read "The Hero of Time returned the Master Sword to its pedestal beyond the Door of Time. Oh Hero, when you have need, play the Song of Time and take up the Blade of Evil's Bane." Beyond the alter was what Ed could only assume to be the Door of Time. It was marked with a glowing sword and an orb that gave off light above it. It was quite large; taking up most of the eastern-most wall at the back of the temple. His curiosity satisfied, he left the temple solemnly, making his way to the castle at last.

There were few people on the road to the castle, which was just as quiet as the Temple of Time. The road twisted and turned, and it wasn't until he had been walking for ten minutes that he got his first good look at the castle as he rounded a corner around a high natural wall on the path. The castle was as large as Central Command, with grey stone walls and a deep green roof. It was built similarly to Central Command as well, with the exception of the gates around it. To get to Central HQ, soldiers needed to pass through a small gate into a closed-in staircase that led up to the doors themselves. The gates leading to the castle were vast, and blocked the road about fifty feet away from where Ed stood. A soldier stood at attention near them, and Ed had a feeling that the "lost little kid" card wouldn't do him much good here.

Instead, Ed hid himself behind a tree on the path and began to formulate a plan to get inside. There were high rocky walls on either side of the path, and the gate was set in a stone bridge that spanned the gap between the walls. The castle was at the top of the hill that the road was cut into, so Ed figured he'd found his path. He climbed the wall around the corner, so the guard wouldn't see, and began to make his way back to the gate from above. To his dismay, there was another guard at the other end of the bridge, but he hadn't been spotted yet. There were more trees up here, so Ed used those for cover as he made his way to where the path sloped upwards and led to the top of the hill. There were more guards on this part of the path, so Ed got to work distracting them and taking them out.

_This was so much easier when I was a State Alchemist and I was getting into warehouses and labs... but this is more fun,_ he thought as he got the last soldier on the path to leave his post and into the rope trap Edward fashioned from saplings and magic. For his amusement, the trap also made the soldier's armor look more awesome by making it red and adding monster faces. The last soldier was caught in what was easily the most boring trap; all the others had fallen for fake food that was dangled over cliffs, trapped in simple illusions that made them think they were being attacked by burning rabbits, and other little things Ed conjured for his amusement. The way clear, Ed made his way to the castle, whistling and feeling quite pleased with himself. There were more soldiers guarding the official entrance to the castle, but their backs were turned to the moat, so he just went for a swim.

As he circled the castle, he managed to find a duct that led into the castle underwater, so Ed held his breath and dived. The passage wasn't too long, but he still found himself gasping for air when he reached the surface. He emerged in what appeared to be an old waterway, with water slowly moving through it. It was mostly dry, because it hadn't rained in quite some time, but there was still enough mud here and there that Ed could deduce that it probably drained excess water away from a garden inside the castle walls. The Duct was still small, and it branched off in more than one place. More than once, he took a wrong turn and had to go back when he found himself looking out through the bars on the entrances to various parts of the castle.

Finally, after an hour of wandering around, he found himself looking into a garden like the one in his dream. The pool of water in the center of the garden was the same, as were the statues and flowers. The only difference was that where the dream garden opened up into a vast field, the garden here was closed off inside tall walls. Sitting by the edge of the fountain was the Princess Zelda, looking exactly as she did in his dream. She was looking anxiously at the entrance to the courtyard, where a tall woman with silver hair and red eyes entered the courtyard. She would have looked Ishvalen if her skin was darker.

"Is there word from the guards? Has he arrived?" _'Anxious imploring. Permission to speak.'_

"Not yet, my lady. The guards are on alert and have been instructed to bring him here as soon as they see him. He will come, you simply must be patient." _'Polite negative. Confirmation. Polite admonishment.'_

"Impa, the moon grows larger with every passing day. If he waits too much longer, it may be too late." _'Worry. Anxiety. Stress of point.'_ Edward chose this time to speak.

"Well, then it's a good thing I'm here then, isn't it?" At the sound of his voice, both women's heads whipped toward him. "I didn't know you all were expecting me. Sneaking in was fun and all, but it would have been nice to know that there was an easier way." As he spoke, Impa removed the bars on the drainage duct and pulled Edward up into the courtyard. Zelda looked relieved to see him, and Impa looked rather like Hawkeye would whenever he'd do anything like this in her presence; she was masterfully hiding a smile.

As he stood and dusted himself off, he looked around the garden, getting a better look at it. There were portraits along the wall with the drainage duct he came out of, each depicting girls with similar features; each had long blonde or brown hair, blue eyes, and wore a dress similar to what Zelda was wearing. Some of the girls were surrounded by six people, while others had women similar to Impa standing behind the princesses. In the middle of the wall was a portrait of a boy with green clothes and a green hat. He had a shield with the crest of the royal family in his right hand and a faintly glowing sword with a blue hilt in his left hand. A fairy floated around him, and the name _Link _floated through Edward's mind.

"It is good to see you in the waking world, Link. As you know, I am Zelda, Princess of Hyrule." _'Formal warm amused greeting.'_

"Nice to see you too, Princess, but my name's not Link. I'm Edward Elric." _'Formal greeting.'_

"Maybe someday you will be..." Zelda murmured. "In my dream, you appeared to be the same age as myself, but you stand before me as a child. How did you get so small?" _'Confused worried curiosity.'_ She was not expecting the resulting explosion, which would have been much smaller if it hadn't been building for the past five or so days and he had vented before coming to see the princess.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING SO ABSOLUTELY MINISCULE THAT HE CAN USE A LEAF AS A CANOOE AND A TWIG FOR A PADDLE?" He ninja flipped over to Zelda, his eyes promising doom and pain when he was suddenly tackled by what felt like a small boulder. After struggling against the force pinning him down and swearing unintelligibly for a good five minutes, he was able to regain enough of his senses to notice that the boulder pinning him down was actually Impa, who was staring down at him with a short sword in her hand. Remembering exactly what the outcome was whenever he offended a frightening woman with a weapon (and Teacher counts because she doesn't need one), he silenced himself and stammered out half-hearted apologies. After Impa was sure he wouldn't assault the Princess, she got off him and put away he sword in whatever secret pocket or hammer space she drew it from.

"Do you do that often?" _'Disapproval, caution, warning,' _Impa said and gestured. "And, why did you react like that? You seemed terrified of me."

"Only when people call me short, and I've been holding it in for several days. Anger management can only go so far." _'Embarrassed apology._ "I know a lot of women that act like you that wouldn't hesitate to use a weapon to get me or a friend in line." '_Hesitant explanation.'_ "Anyway, to answer your question Princess... about five days ago, my little brother and I were attacked by a creepy girl in an even creepier mask. She used magic to make my brother fall into a coma and turn me into my eleven-year-old self. Another girl told me about Hyrule, Termina, and all that kind of stuff. She said the mask's name is Majora's Mask, and that the one wearing it is using it to bring down the moon. The magic is probably why it grew a face, too. I need to stop the moon from falling." As he finished speaking, Zelda nodded like she expected nothing less, and Impa looked on impassively.

"What can I do to help you?" _'Determined offer.'_

"Well, I think I know how I should stop the moon, but the problem is getting it done. The Hero that stopped the moon before used some kind of sacred instrument to call giants to stop the moon, but I don't know what or where it could be, or even if I could play it." After hearing this, Zelda nodded to Impa, who bowed and retreated into the castle.

"I think I know what it could be. It has been passed down by the Royal Family of Hyrule for as long as any of us can remember. There is great magic within it; it helped the Hero of Time on his quest... maybe it can help you too." Impa returned with a simple sword, a wooden shield, and something small and blue. He slung the sword and shield across his back after giving the sword a few practice swings. It was impeccably balanced; he had never seen anything quite like it before. Impa handed the blue thing to Zelda, who held it out for Edward to see.

"This is the Ocarina of Time. It is a magical instrument. Songs are deeply ingrained in the oldest magics of the land... it is said that the Goddesses themselves sang the land into shape. Listen well, for the songs I am about to teach you have only been ever taught to anyone outside the Royal Family when there is great need." She handed him the instrument and pulled out an ocarina of her own. "This first song is the song of the Royal Family of Hyrule. Playing it for any of the leaders of the races of Hyrule is a sign that you have been chosen by the Royal Family, and will make them lend an ear when they would turn you away."

She put her ocarina to her lips and played a very simple, but still beautiful melody. It took Edward a few tries to get it, mostly because he had never played an instrument before and needed to figure out how it worked, but he got it fairly quickly and committed it to memory.

"This next song is called the Song of Time. If the need arises, you can use it to open the Door of Time in the Temple of Time. Other than that, I am unsure how it could be used. The Goddess of Time will hear you when you play it, and She will use Her power to do what must be done. Listen well." She played another simple song on the ocarina. Where the first song had been peaceful, the Song of Time was more solemn. Edward had it memorized after playing it twice.

"There is a vast road ahead of you, Edward Elric. There are many who would be unable to walk the path the gods have set, but do not lose heart. The Goddess of Time will protect you on your journey, and we will meet again after you have done what you must." She gestured a polite goodbye, then for Impa to lead him out of the castle. They walked in silence until Impa had led him all the way to where Hyrule met Amestris, where Impa stopped and spoke one last time.

"You are still new to the lands we have hidden away from those who came from across the desert, so you have yet to see it... but the land of Hyrule is truly a beautiful place. You must protect it, not just for the princess, but for all the people. I know not where your journey shall lead you, but I know that out paths will cross again." And with that, she was gone.

It was still midday, so Edward decided to go back to Central, get on another train to Jintel, and get back to Clock Town. He figured it would be the best place to start looking for a way to the other four "worlds" of Termina. He got on the train without much fuss, and had arrived at his destination before he knew it. The effects of the Cheateu Romani wore off on the train, and Edward was filled with bone-deep exhaustion. It was all he could do to stay awake enough to get off at the right stop and make his way back to Clock Town. Once he reached the inside of the Clock Tower, he finally let sleep take him.

He didn't know what time it was exactly when he woke up, but he was hungry and less tired than before, so he went to find someone that knew how to get to the different areas of Termina. He started with the guards at each gate, but none of them would tell him anything, saying that he was too young to need to know such things. None of the non-humans would tell him anything either, and everyone else in town was too busy setting up for the carnival that would take place in two day's time. Hearing that the carnival was so near gave Edward a start, and he glanced up to see the moon closer than ever.

Eventually, he made his way to the playground in North Clock Town, sitting on the slide and trying to figure out what to do next. He was joined by a group of five kids that couldn't be older than six years old, and the leader of their little gang glared at him.

"Hey, this is our spot. You can't just come here without being one of us. Right guys?" He turned to the other four, who punched the air in unison to accent their collective "Right!" It was kind of creepy. "There's a test you have to pass if you want free reign of the town like we have. Until then, we won't even give you the password to our secret spot. The 'stronomer won't talk to anyone without our permission." Ed had been debating how best to screw with them until they mentioned the astronomer. Astronomers were smart, and from the sound of things, this one was willing to indulge in the curiosity of children. This could be the one to tell Edward how to get to the swamp, mountain, ocean, and canyon. He stood up and gestured that he wanted to take the test they mentioned.

"Alright! First, you have to pop that balloon up there." He pointed to a blue balloon floating over the slide. Edward picked up a rock and threw it as hard as he could, using magic to guide the shot. It popped in one try, and the leader looked at him with reluctant admiration. "That was the easy part. Next, you have to find all of us before nightfall. Ready? Go!" Before Ed knew it, they disappeared faster than Armstrong's shirt.

It didn't take too long to find them. There was one hiding in the shopping district that was easy to catch, who just hid behind a mailbox. There were two in East Clock Town. One was hanging out by the inn, and the other was on the roof of a building called the Milk Bar. The last two hid in North Clock Town. One of them was in the Great Fairy's Fountain, while the leader of the whole gang was up a tree near the slide. Once they all gathered together, they sighed with disappointment.

"No way, you found all of us. You're pretty good, guy. What's your name?"

"Ed."

"Ed? Well, from now on, you're a member of the Bomber's Secret Society for Justice! I'm Jim, the leader. Our hideout is in East Clock Town, in the alley between the Milk Bar and the Mayor's Office. The password to get in is 53421." He raised his hand as if he were making a pledge. "The Bomber's Secret Society of Justice forever!"

With that little mini-quest over with, Edward made his way over to where their "hideout" was. He gave the password to the Bomber standing in front of the entrance and was allowed to pass. He soon found himself in a sewer, and amused himself by leaping from one dry ledge to another, avoiding getting more than the bottom of his boots wet. There was a short corridor that he followed to a more open area with a ladder leading up to the passageway on the other side of the room.

After walking through darkness briefly, he found himself in a room full of scientific instruments and equipment, stacks of parchment full of equations, and models of the stars and solar system. Along the back wall was a staircase, and making his way down it was an eccentric looking man. He was old, with bushy white eyebrows and an even bushier moustache and beard, which was long enough to reach his waist. He was wearing a bright blue robe that stretched all way to the floor and dragged behind him a little as he walked. The man looked up to see Edward staring around his workroom in awe.

"Goodness, I've never seen you here before. Are you a new friend of the Bombers?" His voice was full of energy for someone that moved so slowly with age. Edward nodded, still looking at the instruments and calculations. "You seem quite a bit more excited about all of this than your friends. What brings you to see me so close to the carnival?"

"Well, I'm kind of new in town, and I overheard the Bombers talking about an astronomer. I love science stuff, so I had to see for myself. What does that do?" He pointed to a globe that was suspended in the air with magic. It was rotating slowly, and there were specks of light all around it. The man chuckled at Edward's tone; he sounded like he had walked into a candy store and been told that he could have anything he wanted.

"That, my boy, is something I've been developing as a way to map the stars. I can't get it to turn quite right though... I'm still not as good at Rentankinjutsu as I would like to be. I can direct the energy just fine, but the equations are still in the works."

"Can I see?" The astronomer, who then introduced himself as Shiaki-hakase, saw no harm in it and showed the equation to Edward, who recognized it as a transmuation circle. He also recognized where the professor made a mistake; some of the runes were placed too close together and he confused the rune for "heavens" with the rune for "Heaven"- a very easy mistake to overlook. Edward found himself correcting it without even meaning to, which got the professor's attention immediately.

"You're a very smart boy. Could you possibly assist me with something else?"

"Okay, but only if you can tell me how exactly to get to the Terminese Swamp, Mountains, Ocean, and Canyon. Touka koukan, right?"

"Equivalent exchange, yes..." The professor murmured. "You see, I've been trying to calculate exactly where and when the moon will fall, and how much of it will have burned up in our atmosphere my the time it hits. Here are my equations so far..." Over the next hour or so, Edward helped the professor finish his calculations, going around and correcting various transmutation circles as they worked. They were able to predict that the moon would fall precisely in the middle of Amestris, at exactly 6:00 AM in two days. They looked solemn upon the completion of their calculations, but at least Edward knew when his deadline was now. They spent the rest of the day discussing various theories they had heard or studied, and Edward was invited to stay for lunch, and then eventually dinner as well.

Shiaki-hakase showed Edward a map of Amestris and the ruins of Xerxes over lunch that showed the entrances to everywhere in Termina as well as all the cities, towns, and railroads that could usually be found on a map of Amestris.

"Getting to the swamp and ocean are rather like getting into Clock Town. The swamp is located just south of this Central City, and the ocean can be found just to the north of the military city in the western part of Amestris. The Snowhead Mountains are called the Briggs Mountains by the Amestrians, and the Gorons marked the path to their city with the Eye of Truth. Only one that can see the truth or that knows where the paths are can find their way to the Goron settlement. Ikana Canyon is hidden in the ruins of Xerxes. I suggest getting yourself a Terminese stallion or mare if you want to traverse the land quickly; it is quite the journey to any of the hidden lands. There is a ranch here..." He pointed to an area just to the west of Clock Town. "They should be able to get you a steed."

Edward found himself staying for dinner as well, and the topic of conversation over that meal was quite varied. They talked about everything from research they've done to pranks they'd pulled in the past. Shiaki-hakase was very interested in where Ed learn alchemy, to which he replied "My brother and I taught ourselves out of books. We've both been called geniuses. We didn't even need a teacher for several years. She taught us a lot more than we ever could have learned by ourselves though."

"Really? How intriguing. At your level of skill, you may even be able to perform a human transmutation! Perhaps you could assist me in my endeavors?" He missed the look of pain that had flashed across Edward's face. "If we can get the theory correct in time, why, we may even be able to raise the dead! I could see my wife again, or even my daughter... We could bring all of the greatest minds of the past together! Think of what we could accomplish!" He gazed into space with a greedy look on his face, but snapped out of his daze when Edward got to his feet and said in the broken, honest voice he rarely ever used, "No. It isn't worth it. You can't bring back the dead; it just can't happen."

"However do you mean?" He sounded distant, still caught up in his dreaming.

"Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. What exactly do you think the price of a human would be? Both the body and the soul?"

"I'm sure we could figure something out. After all, we could gather the materials for a human and use magic as the price." He was gesturing wildly, ignoring or not seeing Edward's distress and building anger.

"You have no idea what you're getting into." His voice was shaking, and he was helplessly gesturing _'Hopeless. Futile. Grave warning.'_

"Oh, and you do?" _'Skepticism. Disbelief.'_ Edward sighed and recited from memory the equation that ruined the lives of both himself and his brother.

"Water, 35 liters. Carbon, 20 kilograms. Ammonia, 4 liters. Lime, 1.5 kilograms. Phosphorus, 800 grams. Niter, 100 grams. Sulfur, 80 grams. Fluorine, 7,5 grams. Iron, 5 grams. Silicon, 3 grams. And trace amounts of fifteen other elements. That's the materials for the average adult human. You can't bring a person back to life, you can only mutate the soulless body. Even then, there's too much of a price to pay. You'll lose the thing you treasure most in your arrogance. Believe me. I know" He gestured solemnly at Shiaki-hakase, trying to make him understand.

"Oh really? You've done it before? How did you do it? What did you lose?"

"The only thing I had left." With that, Edward turned and left after gesturing his thanks for the professor's assistance and a quick goodbye. He left Clock Town and headed in the direction the professor had said there would be a ranch, and let the usual whiteness envelop him.

When his vision cleared, he was standing in front of an open gate. There was a dirt path leading through a wide pasture where cows were grazing and a few horses were ambling about. He was drawn toward one in particular, it was big and red, with a white mane and tail. Near it's hooves, it's coat darkened to black, and it looked at him with intelligent black eyes. It had just run at full speed from the other side of the pasture and didn't even look winded.

"Epona! Where'd you go?" A young woman was running towards him and the horse. She was pretty, with long ginger hair and a simple white dress. She looked flustered at seeing the two of them together. "Oh, hello, when did you get here? I'm Maron, and this is Epona. What's your name?"

"It's Edward. What's the deal with the horse?"

"Oh, Epona's always running off. I don't know what I'm going to do with her... she's the best mare we've bred, but she doesn't take to anyone. By this point, we're practically just giving her away." They were gesturing politely with each other. Ed absently stroked Epona, marveling at how much softer her coat was than any horse in Risembool. Maron seemed to come to a conclusion about something, because she led both horse and boy to the stables, where she took a saddle and tack off the wall.

"You're the first person she hasn't attacked. I think you're meant to have her." She continued to gather supplies, while Ed looked at her in bemusement and a portly man in overalls stepped in.

"Have you finally found someone that'll take Epona Maron?"

"Yep. She took to this boy, Edward, right away. Galloped over as fast as she could the instant he stepped through the gate." She turned to Edward and taught him how to saddle and care for the horse. The saddle was different from what he was used to. The general shape was the same, but it rose a tad more in the back and front, and the stirrups looked like they could be adjusted in length. The saddle was obviously designed to grow with the rider. "There's just one more thing, Edward, that you need to know before we can let you take her. She's a special horse, said to have descended from the steed of the Hero himself. She can find you anywhere at all in all the wide world, as long as you can sing her song for her."

Maron began singing a simple song, and Edward memorized it after playing it twice. When he did, Epona perked up and crossed over to him, nuzzling him affectionately. Outside, it was getting quite dark, and Edward realized that he was very tired. Persuading people to not try human transmutation tended to do that. He gratefully accepted their offer of a place to stay and a hot meal, and was grateful that he still looked like a kid so that they didn't ask for much in return.

_**Dawn of the Final Day: 24 Hours Remain**_

He helped make breakfast and cleared the table in thanks the next morning, and set off on his steed. Or, he would have, if he didn't realize that the moon would fall at exactly six o'clock in the morning the following day, and he had no time to do anything of importance. As he was freaking out about needing more time, he remembered Zelda's words to him.

"_May the Goddess of Time protect you on your journey."_ Figuring that it was worth a shot, he played the Song of Time. He played with his eyes closed, and blue swirled behind his eyelids as he focused on his desire to go back in time. There was a subtle _shift_ in the air around him, and he knew that something had changed. He found himself falling backwards through the same whiteness he had come to associate with the hidden lands, and was surrounded by hundreds of grey clocks spiraling around him. They twisted closer and closer, until they were right beneath him. He fell through the clocks, and then everything went black.

A/N: So, that's that. I'll try to get the next chapter up sometime next week.


	7. Woodfall

A/N: I am such a bad person. I said that I'd post this within the week, and here we are, more than two weeks later, and I've had this done for a while. To be fair, I'm in college, and I've got finals next week. All of my professors have decided that having finals in a week means they all have time to squeeze one more unit in.

There's a bit of a fight scene in this one, but it isn't that big. I promise there'll be more fighting later, especially in the sequel that this one is working up to. Also, angst alert! Its not as big as it could be, but only because I'm kind of beating a dead horse.

Terms:

_Rentankinjutsu_- the combination of alchemy and alkahestry

Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, and the Legend of Zelda belong to their respective owners. I make no profit other than the joy of writing and seeing my work be enjoyed.

_**Dawn of the First Day: 168 Hours Remain**_

When Edward opened his eyes, he found himself standing on the front porch of his house and the sun was just coming over the horizon. He looked up at the moon, only to see that the only thing wrong with it was that it simply had not set; it was without a face. His mind whirled at the implications of what happened. _What happened? Has everything... started over?_ It seemed like it had. He was still dressed in his red tunic, and he still had the sword and shield Impa had given him, as well as the Ocarina of Time and Mask of Truth, but most of the other things he'd had vanished. Footsteps behind him made him turn around to see the Mask Seller.

"I take it the mask I made you has been useful?" _'Curious inquiry.' _She was speaking Terminese, even though she had not taught Edward about it for another day or two last time.

"Yeah... wait. How do you know I can speak this language? Didn't I start everything over?" _'Shocked greatly confused inquiry. Plea for explanation.'_

"You turned back the clock, and gave us a second chance. It is a good thing, too. I was having no luck with Padora. I believe that all of our preparations have been made."

"Will anyone else remember what happened?"

"None of it did, you erased it from the timeline." Edward tried to imagine how precisely that made sense. As he still had the things he'd gathered along his journey so far, he decided that it didn't and gave up on it. "Now, it is up to you to heal the land. I suggest beginning with the Southern Swamp; it is closest." Edward nodded and brought the Ocarina of Time to his lips, playing the song that Maron had taught him.

He closed his eyes again and felt another _shift_ as he played, but this one was different. While the last _shift _made him feel melancholy and brought ancient temples and ages past to mind, this one made him think of a breeze teasing the overgrown grass of gentle pastures as amber lights danced in his vision. A whinny in the distance caught his attention, and he looked up to see Epona cantering gracefully towards him, fully saddled and eager to ride.

"It seems you've found yourself a Hylian mare." _'Amusement and wonder.'_ "This is a great beast... it seems to be suited for a great hero." Her tone changed to the more innocent tone Edward came to associate with her making fun of him. "Would you like some help mounting her?" _'Innocent well-meaning offer of assistance.'_

Edward was about to draw his sword and unleash his unholy wrath upon the soul of the ginger demon that kept mocking him and his lack of freakish height, but Epona nudged him with a small snort, and Edward let his shoulders drop and his temper died. Something inside him was quite attached to the horse he'd barely met, and he sensed that both of them wanted nothing more than to feel the wind in their face as they rode unhindered through the Amestrian countryside. He nodded and leapt into the saddle, turning Epona onto a path that would lead them out of Risembool without passing anyone that might recognize him.

He started Epona on a trot, marveling at how smooth her gait was. She took little nudging to do anything, just a tap on the flank to speed up, a gentle pull on the reigns to slow down, and barely a twitch to the left or right to make her change course. They moved in sync with each other, slowly working their way up to a full-on gallop. Epona moved faster than any horse Edward had ever seen, flying effortlessly over all kinds of terrain at speeds to rival the fastest car, or even train. They rested at noon, nearly halfway to the area where the swamp was hidden. Neither was as fatigued as they would be had they not been Epona or Edward, and they only stopped because of hunger, despite the fact that they had been moving at full speed all day.

After lunch and some impromptu practice with his sword on the unsuspecting shrubbery around him, they continued on their way, and Central was in sight after only three more hours of riding. By now, Edward knew what to look for and put on his mask and brought out the Lens of Truth after dismounting. He led Epona by the reigns as he glanced around, feeling for a subtle _shift_ that would let him know that he was close. He came upon a flower that wasn't native to the field that surrounded him and crouched down by it, feeling the _shift _he was looking for coming from the plant. The air around it was musty and humid, and he was reminded of monkeys, ancient tribes, and murky water. He reached out to touch it and found himself and his steed consumed by familiar white light.

Before his vision cleared, he felt his boots and the hem of his tunic get wet, and he heard crickets and cicadas thrumming around him. The air was suddenly humid, and his hair stuck to the back of his neck with humidity and sweat. The air was filled with the sweet scent of flowers, but there was something more putrid in the air as well. He opened his eyes to see that he was standing in the middle of a swamp. The trees were larger than any he'd ever seen before and vibrant flowers of all colors, mostly orange and pink, filled the canopy of trees, which was so dense that it cast the swamp in the glow of twilight, even though the sun would not set for a few more hours. Lily pads spread out around him in all directions, nearly obscuring his view of the water around him.

The water was the source of the putrid smell. It was purple, and breathing in the fumes from it made Edward feel sick. Not even the fungi growing around the edges of the shallow water were alive; the only small plants still alive in the swamp were the lily pads. Rustling behind him drew his attention, and he turned to see bushes at the water's edge behind him moving. The branches above him rustled as well, and three or four monkeys swung out from them to where they could be seen. It seemed that everything in the hidden lands had pointed ears- the monkeys were no exception to this rule, but it was hard to tell because of the speed they were moving and the tufts of white fur on their heads.

On the ground behind them, they were being followed by some of the strangest creatures Edward had ever seen. They appeared to be made of wood, with large open snouts and over-large heads. Their eyes were inhuman; bright orange with no pupils or irises and always creased in sadness, even if they weren't really sad. Their bodies, arms, and legs were small, and they were wearing clothing made of leaves. They skipped across the top of the water, brandishing spears and squeaking frantically. It wasn't until one toppled into him and began squeaking at him. It was a couple seconds before he realized that the squeaking was actually speech.

"Wh-what are you doing just standing around, human? They're coming! Hurry!" It was quite frightened, and its fear only increased as the bushes they came from began rustling again. It was hard to take seriously, however, because of its squeaky voice. It froze in fear as it stared at the foliage, and after a moment, Edward could see why.

An alchemist had been messing around in the swamp. A chimera was advancing toward them, but it was unlike any chimera he had ever seen. Its arms were long, but its body and legs were short. There was a crest of leaves on its head and a short tail trailing behind it, and patches of fur were scattered about its body. Its eyes had no pupils and were angled in the same way as the eyes of the creature that had barreled into him. It had a snout that was full of sharp teeth, but it didn't seem to be able to close it, so drool dribbled down its cheek and chin. Even from where he lay, Edward could tell that it was poorly made and in great pain.

It zeroed in on him and let out a squeaky shriek, and Edward decided he had found the perfect time to get the hell out of there. He scrambled to his feet and started running, Epona following behind him weakly as he began to falter. The toxic fumes from the swamp were getting to him, and the last thing he remembered before black filled his vision was the concerned squeaking of his impromptu companions and the feeling of being lifted out of the corrosive water.

When he came to, he was sitting in a clear pool of water. Someone had relieved him of his soaked clothes and set out a clean set for him, which was placed by the edge of the pool. His belongings were set on top of the clothes. He heard shifting behind him, and turned to see that there were two more of the strange spear-wielding people. He would have thought they were chimera, but they seemed to be in no pain and had their own language, which they spoke easily enough to convince Ed that they were not people that had been fused with something else.

He was feeling much better than he had before, so he took the time to check out his surroundings. The pool was a natural spring, which was fed by a trickle of water from a cliff face on one side of the clearing. Behind what Ed could only assume were guards was a well-worn path. The trees opened up in one direction to form a kind of path, and situated near the tree line was an oddly shaped building. It reminded Ed of a pot, and was painted bright orange. As he watched, the bright blue door opened and an old hag stepped out with a tray of medicine. She wore her white hair in a bee-hive shape and had a large sapphire on a crest on her forehead, and she had bulging eyes, greenish skin, and was small of stature.

"You're awake, are you?" _'Disapproving affirmation.'_ Her voice didn't waver nearly as much as Ed thought it would, and he could sense an undercurrent of power beneath it. He briefly wondered how she could gesture with her hands full, then decided to file it under "hell if he knew". "You must be new to the swamp. It's dangerous for humans to wander around with the water this toxic and those strange monsters wandering around. It's a good thing the Deku King's guard found you, or you wouldn't have made it. Drink this." She shoved a large bottle full of red liquid at him, and he hastened to drink it. It was disgusting, but he felt the last of the effects of the toxic water leave him when it was all gone. He figured that the wooden-looking things were Deku, and was about to ask her for confirmation when the guards snapped to attention and he heard footsteps behind him.

A much larger Deku was striding along the path. Its leaf crest had grown to an enormous size, and it carried a staff made of sticks and vines with a strange mahogany nut at the top. The guards bowed hastily to it, and Edward could only assume that he'd found the Deku King.

"What business do you have in our swamp? Answer carefully, if you wish to keep your life." That was certainly not what he was expecting. The guards were pointing their weapons at him and his sword was too far away to pick up fast enough should they decide to attack. Time to suck up.

"I have been sent to investigate the strange things going on in each of the hidden lands. I heard there was trouble here, and seeing that chimera only confirmed my suspicions. Please, sir, tell me everything you know about what has been going on. I'm here to help." _'Formal polite greeting. Formal explanation. Expression of good intent.'_ The king seemed to debate with himself for a moment, and then sent his guards away and turned around, giving Ed time to clothe himself and get his possessions back in order. When he was done, the king turned around and seemed to be a completely different person. While before, he was a proud king with a strong stance and unshakable courage, now he was older and far more weary. He slumped and sat on the ground with his head in his hands.

"You are lucky I am getting desperate." He looked up with a withering glare, then put his head in his hands in defeat. "Several days ago, we were visited by a girl wearing a mask. She snuck into our temple with my daughter, her guards, and several monkeys. We haven't seen any of them since, and whenever we try to check the temple, we are attacked by those monsters. The Guardian of our lands is enraged, and we have no way to calm him. What do you know about the monsters?"

"They're called chimera. They are a product of Rentankinjutsu, created by the fusion of two living beings. These ones seem to be fusions of Deku and monkeys." The king was understandably startled. Before Edward could say any more, the king leaped to his feet with fear in his eyes.

"Is there a way to reverse the process?" Edward shrugged.

"Not with Rentankinjutsu alone, though it may be possible with magic." The Deku King nodded.

"Then go with my mages to the temple. I am counting on you to wake the temple and calm our guardian. You must find a way to reverse the chimera. Please... for my daughter." Edward nodded and began to walk away, but was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. The hag was back, this time with what appeared to be her identical twin. The only difference between the robed figures was that one wore a sapphire on her crest, while the other wore a ruby.

"Take this potion young one. It will give you strength when you need it most." That was the one with the sapphire. "I will give you a ride to the temple on my boat, allow me to prepare it." That was the one with the ruby. They flew off on broomsticks of all things, and Edward tried to shrug off how creepy they were. There was no difference at all between the way they moved, talked, or gestured. If the undercurrent of power in the sapphire one's voice didn't remind him of frost and the power of the other didn't remind him of flame, he wouldn't have been able to tell them apart, even with the different crests. He tried walking forward again, but was stopped by a talking monkey. He figured that he shouldn't be surprised by this point.

"Please, find our brothers, mm! To get into temple, you need to wake it up, mm! Play this song to get in, mm! It wake up anything, mm!" It began humming a song, and by now Edward knew the drill. He took out his ocarina and learned the song, the name 'Sonata of Awakening' floating through his mind.

The boat they used to traverse the swamp was wide and flat, propelled entirely by magic. He figured he should be more used to strange things by now, but couldn't help but marvel over the boat briefly. The progress was slow, and it wasn't until around midnight that Edward caught a glimpse of a sign that said 'Woodfall.'

"Be humbled, human. You are the first non-Deku to enter the Woodfall Temple in over a thousand years." The mages were tense, and Ed could see why. He began to feel like he was being watched, but the feeling was nothing compared to the thrum of magic he could feel in the water. They continued across a wide pool of toxic water until they reached an altar. Without really knowing what he was doing, Edward got up on the altar and put the Ocarina of Time to his lips. He played the Sonata of Awakening, feeling the _shift_ branch out and make contact with the thrum of magic he had felt the whole time he was in the area. Emerald green danced behind his closed eyes, and he felt alertness overtake him as a great wooden temple rose from the water. He gazed in awe at what his magic had wrought, but had no time to reflect on it as he was ushered inside and the sun set.

_**Night of the First Day: 156 Hours Remain**_

The inside of the Temple was dark, and lit with torches along the high walls. The inside was perfectly dry, and moss covered the grey stone of the floor and walls. Vines hung from the ceiling, and the whole thing struck Edward with a feeling of familiarity. The group wound their way down a long corridor for a good ten minutes before they reached the Temple proper. The room of worship was large and moss-free. The floor was made of colorful stone, and murals of Deku, monkeys, and a large figure were painted on the walls.

There were two things that were obviously off about the room. The first was a great circle inlaid with complex runes. It glowed blue, and a colorful mask floated in the middle, held in place by the power of Rentankinjutsu. The second was the huge number of Deku-monkey chimera. There was no time to think when they entered; the group was immediately attacked by the warped beings. Edward drew his sword and shield and defended himself as best as he could, which was better than he thought he'd do, considering he was more used to a spear or his automail blade than a sword.

The first chimera lunged at him, and he stepped instinctively to the side. He saw the way the chimera balanced as it landed, and jabbed it with the butt of the hilt at precisely the spot that would throw it off balance. He did the same with most of the others, bobbing and weaving through the mages that were hard at work studying the transmutation circle. Soon, none of the chimera could move, except for one. This chimera was different than the others. It seemed unwilling to attack and was constantly fighting with itself, scratching and biting its own arms body. Edward moved up to take it down as well, and heard that it had been muttering to itself the whole time in its squeaky, warped voice.

"Daddy... hurts... Where's daddy?" Edward sucked in a breath, his eyes widening in horrified recognition. Perhaps it was because neither half of the chimera was human, but Edward had thought of the Deku chimera as not sentient, like they were no smarter than chimera made entirely of animals. The words of the last chimera jolted him back five years, to a little girl with brown braids and her dog who suffered the same fate as the girl in front of him. The girl he couldn't save. Edward knelt down with a tear in his eye, and laid a hand on the shoulder of the trembling creature.

Now that he looked closer, he could see the similarity between the mutilated being in front of him and the Deku King. They both had proud crests and smoother skin than their fellows, and their eyes were larger and lighter. She was young too; God, she was so young... The Deku Princess couldn't have been more than six years old, and she was suffering. The chimeras were constructed better than Nina had been, but they were still in great pain. She was fighting with herself, trying to overcome the instinct that had been written into the transmutation circle to attack everything that entered the temple. Somehow, Padora knew how to do this. She knew how to make these monstrosities with her mask by using alchemy. Edward's fist clenched as he got to his feet, racking his brain for anything at all he could do to help.

The Great Fairy gave him magic. He couldn't change anything into anything else, just fuel small changes of color, or light torches or control temperature in some other small way. He bit back a sob as he realized that there was nothing he could do to change the innocent Deku child in front of him to normal. He had grown so much since little Nina, but there was still nothing he could do. He was human. He couldn't even save a little girl.

"Damn it!" He slipped back into Amestrian, startling the mages around him who were working on the unconscious chimera around him. He was too far away from the wall to punch it, so he gripped his hair tightly with both hands, urging himself to think of something, _anything_ he could do to make this better. And he remembered the words of the monkey that taught him the Sonata of Awakening. _It can awaken anything._ Hoping and praying that his plan could work, he brought the Ocarina of Time to his lips for the third time that day. He played the Sonata of Awakening and felt the _shift _that spoke of alertness as emerald swam behind his eyes again, but the s_hift _had changed slightly. Before, it reached deep into the magic around him and woke the temple from its deep sleep. This time, it reached deep into the minds of the chimera around him, and separated the equation from the being. It could not change the form of those around him, but it reached into their minds and woke the Deku from their hibernation.

Immediately, the Princess stopped scratching herself and looked around in confusion. Her eyes were glazed with pain, but there was not battle for dominance of wills behind them keeping her attention away from her surroundings. "What happened?" Edward gave her a small smile, immensely relieved at the change in the girl.

"A bad person came and hurt you. She made you turn into something you shouldn't be, but I helped you wake up."

"It hurts." She sniffled at nuzzled closer to Edward, who had knelt and put his hands on her shoulders again.

"I know. I can't change you back now, but I'll find a way. I promise." She nodded and gave him a hug, and he rubbed circles on her back as she cried with the pain of everything that happened to her. It was too much for Edward as well. How could he be the Hero of the People when all he could save was himself and his brother? Edward held the princess and cried and closed his eyes, murmuring comforting words and pretending it was little Nina in his arms that he was comforting, and promising her that he would save this one; that what happened to her wouldn't happen to anyone else, and trying to convince himself that everything would be okay.

Eventually, the Deku Princess calmed down and led him by the hand to the circle in the middle of the room. "I remember that the girl in the mask wanted us to protect this. She said if we didn't, bad things would happen." Ed walked around the circle, taking in every detail, every line and rune, absorbing the circle's purpose and structure. It was a sealing circle, made to absorb and trap large amounts of energy. Edward recognized some parts of the circle from Mustang's gloves; the failsafe built into his circle to keep too much backlash from killing him. The other parts of the circle Edward recognized from his attempts at human transmutation. There were stabilizers everywhere, redirecting the energy it created back into the equation to help to fuel it. He had used the same technique himself with Alphonse that night to avoid paying as much of the cost as they might have if they had fueled the entire equation with their own energy. Even at the outside of the circle, Edward could sense the vast energy it contained. This circle was designed to hold nothing less than some kind of god.

He finally found out what happened to Odolwa, the Guardian of Woodfall.

He moved carefully and with precision to get rid of the circle. He wiped out the lines by hand, not knowing what would happen if he added magic to the equation and not willing to find out. The circle was carefully balanced; it was practically rigged to explode everything in the area if even one line was interrupted at the wrong time. After about an hour of careful consideration and even more careful smudging and erasing, there was nothing to hold the equation together, and it collapsed in on itself with no backlash to kill the occupants of the room.

When everything was clear, the mask rose into the air, and gave off a pale green light. It felt similar to the light that enveloped him whenever he entered or exited the hidden lands, but was slightly different. While the white light was nothing but displacement- moving from one part of the world to another- this light pulled at him hard. When his vision cleared, he could feel that he was no longer in the same realm as Amestris, Hyrule, or Termina. He was standing on top of a pale green pillar in the middle of what seemed to be an even paler green sea. Columns of water flowed from nowhere at all to the sea below, or maybe up to the clouds above, and green mist obscured most of his vision. Through it, he could barely make out a humanoid figure. It didn't seem to have a head, but nothing was distinct enough for Edward to be able to tell.

It began singing as soon as Ed had taken everything in. The song sounded melancholy, despite the fact that there were no words, and echoed strangely around the area. It fell, then rose in pitch, and Edward brought out the Ocarina, and had the song memorized after playing it once. They played and sang together, evoking images of ages past and the heeding of a diving call in Ed's mind, which supplied him with the name 'Oath to Order'.

When they were finished, the Giant spoke to Edward in the same voice that it had sung in. It was an old language; older than Hylian and Terminese. It was the first language, the Tongue of the Gods. The only reason Edward could understand it at all was because he had seen the Truth of Everything. Even still, it was difficult to make out; Odolwa could not speak the Tongue of the Gods as well as a true God or Goddess. He spoke only two words:

"Call us."

With his message sent and his song learned, Edward found himself bathed in the same green light as before. He felt himself falling slowly through the ether, and the air around him _shifted_. This was a different s_hift t_han Edward was familiar with; all the others felt like he was being pulled toward something greater than himself. This one felt like something beautiful was pulling away from him. It left him feeling slightly empty, but he shook his head and cleared it; now was not the time to be dwelling on anything unimportant.

He was standing again in the Woodfall Temple. He was again surrounded by the Deku mages and chimera, who were gazing at him in awe. Most of them were wary of approaching him; the mages because of his actions, and the chimera because of the pain of movement. There was one exception to this, however; the Deku Princess. She came running at him in a flying tackle, and managed to knock him to the ground.

"You did it! You did it! Do you know how to turn us back now?" Edward smiled at her sadly, shaking his head. "But it hurts!"

"I know..." He trailed off, forgetting what he was about to say as he remembered the bottle of red potion the hags had given him. He pulled it out, remembering how it healed his aches and pains. "Here, drink this. It won't turn you back, but it might make the hurting stop." Ed held it out to her and watched as she drank it. She finished with a grimace, but she looked relieved. "Feel better?" She nodded. One of the mages who had been watching the exchange stepped forward.

"We thank you for what you have done. You have freed the Giant who protects us and found the Princess. When we return, our king will most likely reward you. Please follow us, Princess, Hero." Edward nodded and followed the mages out of the temple, the princess clinging to his side. The Deku Princess was small; even smaller than Nina had been. Ed glanced down at her small form, and watched her glance around in wonder. It looked like movement still pained her, so he bent down and lifted her onto his shoulders. She gave a cry of delight and a little giggle as Edward sped up and slowed down, running circles around the mages as they left the temple. They watched in amusement as he started making sound effects, smiling slightly at the sight.

The swamp had been cleared of poison, and was totally unrecognizable as the dying marsh that they had passed through before. The Princess got off his shoulders when they got onto the boat and sat down in his lap, giggling at the look of wonder on Edward's face as he looked at what the swamp truly looked like.

The water was crystal clear, and the plants that grew in and on the water were more vibrant than ever. The trees were a deep shade of green, and all of the flowers were in full bloom; brighter than ever. Fireflies danced over the water, much larger and brighter than any he'd ever seen before. And then there were the plants that Edward could not identify. There was magic in the plants around him; in the canopy, vines glowed silver-blue. Flowers and butterflies gave off vibrant pink and orange light. All around him, everything glowed. The princess scooped one of the green and glowing lily pad flowers out of the water and weaved it into the hairline that framed Ed's face.

"Now you have a crest like us!" Edward sighed indulgently and pushed some magic into making sure the flower stayed put until he wanted to take it out.

Soon, the boat landed by a large wooden wall, and the Deku disembarked. Edward followed them, and found himself in a courtyard. There was a path through the swamp inside of the first wall that led straight up to the interior of the Deku Palace. The mages nodded at the guards, who stood by passively with their spears as the group proceeded down the short corridor into the throne room.

The princess flung herself at her father, who just stood there, shocked, staring at the thing that had begun babbling at him about various things. The king set her aside, looked straight at Edward, and said one thing: "Explain."

He did so, in typical Fullmetal Alchemist fashion: with much unnecessary detail and without the more necessary parts until the king stopped him and made him go into more detail. He had to stop and explain himself every once in a while, and didn't even bother to explain the giant transmutation circle beyond "It was something that had to be erased in just the right way or it would have blown up the whole swamp, and I assumed you really wouldn't want that." He left out his interaction with Odolwa, however, letting the mages start with their story as soon as he finished with his, looking around the room instead.

It was sparsely furnished. There was a fire pit in the middle of the room, a holding cell that looked more like a cage on one side of the room, and two platforms where the king and princess would stand or sit. Other than the large leaves on the floor of the room, there wasn't much to be said for the decor. Ed tuned back into the conversation when he heard the king vying for his attention. Apparently, they wouldn't call him anything but "Hero." It was better than "brat." He nodded at the king to show that he had his attention.

"Hero, you have done a great thing for us. By freeing Odolwa from his prison, the swamp is free to flourish once more. For this you must be rewarded. But first, there is one more matter that must be attended to. Is there no way to return my daughter to normal?" Ed shook his head.

"I need more time to research it. I promise that I will come back when I can help her, but for now, there's nothing I can do." The king sagged in disappointment.

"Very well... What boon would you ask of me? Even with my daughter as she is, we Deku owe you a great debt." Edward was sorely tempted to ask for riches or something extravagant, red, and badass, but he realized he had no way to take it with him. He mentally sighed, and began to think harder about what he could possibly ask for. He remembered the Great Fairy he had met in Clock Town, and how much her gift had helped him in his quest.

"Is there a Great Fairy around here?" The king looked surprised that he only wanted to see the Great Fairy, but nodded and directed one of his guards to show him to the Fairy. "Thanks. Also, could I get some food I can take with me? I've still got a lot of travelling to do." The king nodded again.

The guards led him to a secluded glade near the edge of the swamp, where a large forest hid the horizon from view. There were more glowing plants near here, and all of the plants within the Great Fairy's fountain glowed. The pool of water in the center of the glade was fed by shallow streams, and the air tingled with magic.

The Great Fairy rose from the center of the fountain in the same way as her sister in Clock Town had done. She looked just like her sister, except that there were more vines than leaves covering her figure and her hair was vibrantly pink. She laughed in delight at the sight of him.

"Welcome, hero! I am the Great Fairy of Power. Allow me to heal your wounds." Edward was enveloped in pink light and rejuvenated by it. "My sister has told me that you would come. I give this gift to you. Please take it." He was enveloped in light again, but this time he felt a _shift _in his mind. Something unlocked itself, and Ed found himself itching to draw his sword. "The technique I have given you has been passed down to all the great heroes. It is called the Spin Attack. Charge your sword with magic and spin it about you to unleash a mighty attack. Come back and see me if you are weary." And with that farewell, she laughed and disappeared back into her fountain.

A/N: So, now Woodfall has been finished in the typical Legend of Zelda fasion, minus the Heart Container and awesome boss music. Tell me what you think!


	8. Snowhead

**A/N: Please don't hurt me. I swear I've been trying, but this chapter fought like a cornered homunculus. Also: college.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of this, except for some towns.**

Ed's exit from the swamp was much quieter than he thought he'd be able to manage. He left just before dawn, riding Epona through the shallow water with no less than the Deku King, Deku Princess, and their royal guard as his escort. Just before they reached the exit of the swamp, the king took him aside and pulled out a map.

"You are travelling to the mountains of Snowhead, yes? The humans that populate the Overworld call that range the Briggs Mountains, and it is said that they are guarded by a fierce warrior... are you okay?" Edward had paled significantly upon hearing that he was going to be in the same place as General Armstrong. He had hoped that he would never have to deal with that terrifying woman ever again; it was bad enough that she was just like Teacher, but she was ten times worse because she never picked him back up again after thoroughly handing his ass to him. He swallowed nervously and nodded in answer to the king's question.

"Fortunately," the king continued, oblivious to Ed's horror, "her fortress is in the middle of the range. The Gorons are stilled settled around Snowhead itself, which is near the western end of the mountain range. They are not hidden as well as us, so I fear they may have been found... I have heard nothing from their patriarch or elders in quite some time. If, when you return, you could bring me news, I would be most grateful." Ed nodded again, gave the Princess one last hug, and mounted Epona.

_**Dawn of the Second Day: 144 Hours Remain**_

Edward felt the usual _shift_, and once again found himself on the outskirts of Central City. He glanced at it with a sigh, wondering what Mustang's team was doing at the moment. Had they found a cure for Mustang's eyes yet? What would they say if they saw that he'd become a child? He knew Hawkeye had figured it out last time... the rest of the team was just as smart, though most of them didn't show it. He gave Central a measuring glance as he rode past, letting his thoughts wander to wherever they decided to go.

On the long journey to Snowhead/Briggs, his thoughts found themselves back in Risembool. He'd dropped Al off at Winry's, so going back to heal Al somehow would involve facing Winry again, possibly as a child. She'd be pissed when she saw him. He was beginning to rethink his marriage proposal. He didn't feel like dealing with her for the rest of his life at the moment. In fact, he'd be all too happy if he never saw her again after she confessed that she really did think he was worthless.

Epona seemed to sense the melancholy turn to his thoughts, and made a concerned whinny. Ed patted her side absently, pulling himself out of his musings and devising a plan for when he reached the mountains.

The north was freezing, and Hylian Mare or not, Epona wouldn't be able to stand the extreme temperatures. He'd have to leave her somewhere safe; possibly in some hidden town where he could also buy some warmer clothes. He resigned himself to whatever may come when he reached his destination, and set Epona at a gallop. The sooner he got it over with, the better.

When the temperature had dropped far enough that Edward was shivering in his tunic, he stumbled upon a small hidden town, little more than a trading post and a few houses. He eagerly bartered for warmer clothes and blankets for Epona. The traders told him that Snowhead was just an hour's ride north of the town, but advised him against going there.

"The weather up there's been weird lately... it's been getting colder and colder. I hear the Gorons are in trouble too... apparently, some Overworlder's been sending teams into their territory to investigate what's been going on there. I'd be careful if I were you, kid." Edward nodded and continued on his way, not liking what he'd been hearing. He was almost certainly going to run into General Armstrong. A chill ran down his spine at the thought that had nothing to do with the cold. Regardless of the demon woman whose plans he would be interfering with, he and his faithful steed rode onward.

Thanks to Epona's breeding, which may or may not have been aided by magic, they arrived in Briggs in record time. He skirted around North City, watching the heated train arrive with envy. The Hiddenworlders at the trading post were right; it was positively frigid. He was grateful for his lack of automail, because even the automail especially designed to withstand the extreme cold of the north would have locked up and frozen by now. Once he was in sight of the Briggs mountains- far away from the base itself, of course, he scoured the landscape for another hidden town, hoping beyond hope that there would be a small settlement where he could keep Epona safe.

To his relief, there was. The small settlement of Kita lay just outside the northernmost Amestrian town, which was very near Briggs but lay just to the west. According to what he remembered of the map Shiaki-hakase had shown him, it would only be about three hours of walking to get to the Snowhead mountains. He left Epona in the care of a kind family with a magically heated stable, and turned to the north.

He made good time, considering the blizzard that appeared out of nowhere. He kept the Lens of Truth pressed to his face, following the otherwise buried and invisible path marked by the Gorons. The path twisted and turned, and even his magic couldn't keep Ed completely warm. He pulled at his coat in his free hand, trying to keep as much heat from escaping him as possible. He set his magic on the task of clearing the path ahead of him, and was quite drained by the time he felt the _shift_ that marked his entrance to a hidden settlement.

This _shift_ was much more subtle than the others he was used to. There was no flash of whiteness and sudden appearance in a completely different place. Instead, the mountains around him seemed to warp. They became older and taller, and felt less empty than the mountains of Briggs, but they still towered over him and left him feeling small and alone.

The blizzard had calmed some when he entered the Snowhead mountain range, so he could now make out more of the path around him. After a few more minutes of walking, he came to a clearing with paths that branched out. There was smoke reminiscent of chimney fires in more than one direction, while the path opposite him led even higher into the mountains than Ed had already climbed. Ed was freezing by the time he climbed high enough to see the view, so he headed in the direction of the most fires.

It was another twenty minutes of walking by the time he arrived in the village. Strange, bulky, rock creatures were milling about in the cold, and he recognized them as the same race of people as the guy that almost sold him bombs back in Hyrule Castle Town.

The village itself was well hidden. Ed had to climb a steep slope to reach it, and all of the buildings had white-blue roofs that were highly reminiscent of the mountain peaks surrounding them. It wasn't a large village, and there were very few paths leading in and out. As he was looking around, one of the native people noticed him and pointed him out to the others, who jumped. The all curled up into balls the size of small boulders and began rolling away at a tremendous speed. Bemused, Edward ran after them.

"Wait! I'm not going to hurt you! I need to get to the Temple!"

They were too far away to hear him clearly, so Ed sprinted faster over to the nearest building, which happened to be the largest, and began banging on the door.

"Hey! Let me in! I'm cold, I need shelter, and I'm tired of being ignored!" He wasn't really expecting a response, but he got one. Too bad it wasn't welcoming.

"No! You're one of those Overworlders that keeps entering our territory, goro! Thanks to your people, we can't get food goro!" Well, that explained the hostility.

"I'm not one of them! I'm here to see the temple, and possibly break the curse on it! Please, let me in so we can talk!" After a moment of silence in which the Gorons were most likely deciding whether or not to leave him out in the cold, there was a thud and the door opened.

"Get in, get in, goro! We can't keep the door open too long or the cold will get in, goro." Ed dashed in and sighed with relief as warmth washed over him. There were many Gorons crowded around the main hall of the building, clustered around torches and hearth fires. A chandelier spun dangling from the ceiling, distributing heat evenly across the room where the hearth fires and torch fires couldn't reach. A horrible wailing echoed around the hall, and Ed covered his ears as soon as his hearing became a larger priority than warming up.

"We're sorry about the noise, goro. Our patriarch, Gor Darimi, went out into the blizzard to find food and try to keep the Overworlders away from our village and temple, but he doesn't come back often, goro. We're not sure if we'll starve to death or go mad from the all the crying first, goro."

"Well, it's a good thing I'm here. I have a lot of experience in the field of removing unwanted occupation from an area, and I think I may be able to help you guys. First, we're going to need to get your patriarch back here so we can work something out and get that kid to stop crying. Where is he now?"

"He's at the temple. It's about a twenty-minute walk from here, but you're in no state to go just yet, goro. If you wait for a few minutes, we'll be able to get an escort for you, along with the supplies you'll need." Edward nodded and agreed to meet his escort near the door in a few minutes. In the meantime, he went to go see the patriarch's son, in case there was anything he could do to get the noise to stop or find a way to convince Gor Darimi to come back. The way the sound echoed around the hall made it difficult to pinpoint the source of any sound, let alone one as loud as the patriarch's son, but Edward finally found him tucked away in a room just off the main hall.

It was quite obviously the child's room; there were toys scattered around and a bed low to the ground so a small child could easily climb in or out. On the bed was a wailing miniature version of the Gorons Edward had seen before. He calmed down slightly when Edward entered, curiosity momentarily overriding sadness.

"Hey, my name's Ed. Who are you?" He gestured simply, not knowing how much the child knew. The Gorons hardly ever gestured and never gestured with eloquence, so he figured he's match their habits for now.

"My name's Taka. Why're you here? You don't look like a Goron. Do you know where my daddy is?"

"I'm a human, and I'm here to find your daddy and to help him get rid of all of those other humans that are making it hard for you guys to find food."

"You gotta find him, Mr. Ed! I never see him anymore! What if he got found or lost or hurt? I keep hearing my nannies say that they'll wait as long as it takes for him to come back, but what if that's never? What if I never see daddy again?" He broke down crying again, but Edward didn't try to make any more conversation. He didn't need to. His mind flashed back to an image he'd hated for a long time: his mother crying and a turned back without any goodbye.

He balled his hands into a fist and began marching out of the room, rage burning in his eyes. He vaguely heard the child behind him call out, but he was too focused on his goal to hear. Edward was going to find Gor Darimi and drag him back by force if he had too. He wouldn't let another child grow up hating his dad for some stupid, noble choice on the parent's part. Ignoring the warnings and startled cries from the Gorons, Edward paused only long enough to figure out how to get to Snowhead before stomping back out into the blizzard.

When the Gorons had said it would take twenty minutes to get to Snowhead, they didn't take Edward's determination and stubbornness into account. He made the trip in ten.

If he paid more attention to his surroundings, he would have noticed the path getting narrower and narrower, and the mountains sloping to his left and right becoming steeper and steeper until he found himself in a canyon instead of a valley. The canyon suddenly opened up before him. The snowy ground on either side of the path suddenly dropped out into a gorge; at the end of the slippery path laid a great temple of stone the color of ice that resembled a mountain. As he approached it, he saw a figure shivering next to the entrance, looking inside. It was a Goron, slightly larger than the others and wearing some decorative make-up. He was more heavily muscled, but that didn't stop Edward from what he did next.

He quickly used his magic to silence the two of them (there must be a reason the Goron wasn't going in after all), and dragged the unfortunate subject of his wrath back down the path a ways- out of sight from the temple.

He dropped the magic when they were a safe distance away and asked in a deceptively calm voice, "You're Gor Darimi, right?" _Polite question. _The Goron nodded. Edward managed to kick him to the ground in one shot. "You need to get back to your son before either of you do something stupid." _Irritation. Important. Rebuke._

"How can I, when I must think of all my people? And who are you to command me, the patriarch of the Gorons of Snowhead?"_ Firm irritation. Rebuke._

"I'm the one that's trying to help you guys! You being out here won't do anything. You aren't planning, you aren't accepting help, and if you die out here your son will hate you forever." _Firm rebuke. Attend._

"How do you know this? What could a child like you possibly do to assist us?" The Gorons didn't use hand language, but they had mastered the art of being condescending without seeming to know they weren't being polite. Edward decided to drop the hand language for now.

"To answer your first question, I know from personal experience. Trust me, growing up hating your dad because he went off to be noble is not the way you want your kid to go. And I can help you because I know all about who you're fighting and I have a lot of experience removing unwanted occupation." Darimi seemed thoughtful for a minute or two (it was kind of hard to tell because of the difference in facial structure), then nodded and gestured for Edward to follow him.

They headed back to the village while Edward explained the experience he had with situations like the one the Gorons were in at Gor Darimi's insistence. By the time they arrived back at the main hall at the center of the village, they had become fast friends due to a shared love of explosives, sadistic tendencies when scaring off unwanted guests, and a brief explanation of the situation with Edward's father- excluding the whole human homunculus thing.

The first thing they did upon their return was to silence the crying child. At first, it seemed like Darimi's return was the only thing necessary to make the noise stop, but when Taka learned that his father would be going out again, he started balling his eyes out louder than before. Darimi sighed and brought out a set of three drums, each pitched differently. He played a simple melody on them that put his son to sleep. Edward noticed a slight _shift_ in the air around him; not enough to feel the magic deeply but just enough to know the song had magical power.

"What was that song you played?" Edward asked when he, and Darimi got to a small room that appeared to be used solely for planning expeditions into the mountain; there was a large map of the range in the center of the room with pins and marks at various parts of the range.

"It is called the Goron Lullaby. It is guaranteed to put all intended listeners to sleep." That gave Ed an idea. He explained it in detail to Gor Darimi, who laughed and said, "I knew I liked you kid." They ironed out the details, gathered everyone they needed, and headed off to the temple to implement their plan.

Twenty minutes later, over a dozen Gorons were gathered in the gorge that contained the Snowhead Temple. Ed was gleefully outfitted with the biggest bomb bag the Gorons had to offer, as were all the other Gorons. Ed gave a signal, and as one, they set bombchus scuttling off toward the temple. They exploded right on target, going off ten feet away from the entrance. The three soldiers that came outside to investigate didn't see anything, as Ed and co. were hidden behind rocks or disguised as them. Three Gorons spread throughout the area set off more bombs, and with a nod the Briggs soldiers went to investigate.

Three renditions of the Goron Lullaby later, they were fast asleep. They were tied up and scattered around to the mountain (back in the Overworld of course), but not before Ed took the opportunity to draw rude things on their faces. He also used some simple magic to turn their outfits pink and frilly. He even gave one of them a tiara and gave a few others the sparkles that had been passed down through the Armstrong line through generations.

They repeated the process with the next set of soldiers, this time being more careful as they had guns. This time, the Gorons punched them in the back of the head when they weren't looking. When the company of Gorons and Ed entered the temple, they saw that while there were no more soldiers, there were weapons and tanks lying around. After explaining what each weapon did, the Gorons were only too happy to bend the barrels of each into a knot with their bare hands.

Ed made a mental note to not do anything to get on the bad side of a Goron ever again.

The chamber they found themselves in was sealed shut, and would have been the same color stone as the outside of them temple, had there not been gunpowder and evidence of fires and explosions everywhere. The door to the next chamber was sealed shut, and had the most signs of damage. Apparently, no one from Briggs was able to get in. Gor Darimi opened the door by curling into a ball and pounding into the ground.

The inner chamber was as decorated as Edward expected it to be. The ceiling was higher than he could make out, and the room was made of white stone tinged with blue. It glimmered like ice in the sun, and intricate patterns of Goron warriors around a long-legged being were carved into the stone. In the middle of the circular room, a large transmutation circle sealed away a mask that held the spirit of the guardian of the north. Unfortunately, this circle was not balanced properly. Extra energy shot out everywhere, and it thrummed with an energy that almost made it feel alive.

The other strange thing about the circle was difficult to describe. There is a difference between being in a room that is empty and a room where someone is unconscious. A sleeping person is aware of you, even if it is only a vague awareness. Edward had become accustomed to the feeling in his travels with Alphonse; his presence in a room used to be like that of a sleeping person, but with the added feeling of being watched.

That is what the transmutation circle was like. Any circle, even an active one, never felt like a presence in a room, much less like one that was alert and watching. It felt awake and attentive, as if it were watching Edward. He knew that there would be no way to get rid of the circle until it calmed. Without thinking, as if he's meant to do so all along, Edward took out the ocarina and played the Goron Lullaby.

He filled the song with magic and intent and felt it _shift_. Red danced behind his vision as the magic in his notes reached out and made contact with the circle. It was calming in a way; soothing. It put him in mind of when his mother sang him to sleep. At the end of the song, the circle quieted. It felt like an average transmutation circle again. He wiped it out the same way as the one in the Woodfall Temple, and once again the mask in the middle rose into the air. He was enveloped in the same light that pulled at his very core.

When he could see again, he was in a very similar place to where he learned the Oath to Order. He was in that same otherworldly realm, but the pillar on which he stood and the seas of water below were grey and white. Another large figure stood just out of sight through the clouds. Edward could feel its gaze on him, and he suddenly felt small and alone. However, feeling small had never been much of an issue, so he asked the first question burning in his mind.

"What are you all?"

Goht answered in the same tongue as Odolwa, the Tongue of the Gods. Like Odolwa, he spoke little.

"Guardians." Edward's mind reeled briefly before he spoke again.

"Wait! You mean that you're protective gods? Then why are you being-" But he didn't get the chance to finish his question. He was bathed in another white light and felt once more like something beautiful was pulling away from him.

When he was back in Snowhead, all of the Gorons were looking at him in awe. "The weather around here should go back to normal now. That circle was the cause of the blizzard." He said it with certainty, and all of the Gorons believed him.

_**Night of the Second Day: 132 Hours Remain**_

The walk back to the village was slightly warmer than the walk to the temple, and it was mostly silent. The Gorons insisted on rewarding him, so he asked to keep the bombs they gave him and to see the local Great Fairy. They directed him up a narrow path that split from the way back to the village he hadn't noticed before because of the storm. Darimi insisted on going with him.

The fountain was located in an icy cave at the end of the path. The water in the middle was just as clear as the walls, and if it hadn't been rippling slightly from the magic within it, he would never have noticed it at all. He waded a few feet into the pool, sighing in contentment at the warm water. With a delighted laugh, the Great Fairy rose from the center of her fountain pool, looking exactly like her sisters except for her green hair.

"Greetings, wise young one! I am the Great Fairy of Wisdom. Allow me to ease your weariness." Edward felt energy flow through him, soothing his aches and pains and warming him the rest of the way. "I know that my sister has granted you magic power. Allow me to increase your stamina in both mind and body, so that you may cast more powerfully. I am sure this gift will be of use to you on your journey. When battle has made you weary, please come back to visit me." And with a laugh, she disappeared back into her fountain.

Gor Darimi was shocked that she showed herself, as even he had only ever seen her on the day he was to receive her blessing as the new patriarch, and even then she had said little, not even healing him. "You just may be what this land needs, kid," he murmured to himself.

When they returned to the village, Gor Darimi was attacked by a babbling brown blur that turned out to be his son. As Taka chattered excitedly about how he had heard how brave Darimi had been and how heroically he had driven the Overworlders away, Ed's thoughts turned to what might have been. He thought of a younger him enthusiastically showing off his latest transmutation to Hoenheim, and receiving a pat on the head for a job well done. He found that his fantasy didn't hurt as much as it used to. Then, unbidden, his thoughts turned to another man, this one with black hair and eyes. He thought of all the times he's return from a difficult mission and hand in his report with a sour look on his face as he and Mustang bickered and argued. But as Ed left the office, the parting insult always lacked the usual luster and as he turned to give his C.O. one last sneer, he'd pretend not to see the proud look in Mustang's eyes as he bid him a sarcastic farewell.

**A/N: Tell me what you think if you want.**


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